


We Happy Few | Band of Brothers

by LostInTheWiind



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Band Of Brothers - Freeform, F/M, Gen, OCs - Freeform, Paratroopers, War, WorldWarII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2020-02-09 16:58:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 84
Words: 218,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18642286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostInTheWiind/pseuds/LostInTheWiind
Summary: "Women don't belong in war." — It was something Margot Kessler and Antonia Winslow heard day in and day out; but never once did they let those words deter them from serving their country alongside the men. They were unbelievably strong and they were skilled beyond any shadow of a doubt; they were the sisters in a band of brothers.





	1. Disclaimer

Before this story begins I would just like to cover a few topics that I think are important when writing fanfiction of this nature.

**1**. Band of Brothers, a 10-part HBO miniseries is based on REAL events that took place during world war 2; it is the story of Easy Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army. I highly suggest watching the series first, if you haven't already, before reading.

**2.**  This story will deal with very real and very scary topics — the saying "war is hell" isn't around for nothing. I will not shy away from dealing with these sensitive topics as I believe it is important to take in everything from the good and the bad when dealing with the true stories of these incredibly brave men — to sugar-coat anything would be nothing less than a disservice to them. I advise you to read with caution if you are easily triggered. 

**3.**  I will, to the very best of my abilities, try to keep with full accuracy during parts of the story that are non-canon. I am not, however, a military or world war 2 expert and I might get a few things wrong here or there; if I do, please just leave me a nice comment and I will fix the error ASAP. 

**4.**  I accept and appreciate constructive criticism wherever and whenever I can! If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave them publicly or shoot me a private message. The only thing I ask is that you are nice about it :)

**5.**  This is the first time I have written a story with 2 main characters and in the third person, so just bear with me a little bit here and hopefully, things will run smoothly :)

I hope you enjoy the book and the stories of the characters that I have created. Writing about things I am passionate about brings me great joy and I hope I can manage to transfer even a little bit of that joy to you through my words. 

Thanks for reading!


	2. New Beginnings

Standing up from her place on the ground where she had been tending to a loose board in the fence, Margot Kessler stuffed the old, well-used hammer into her tool belt and brushed the dust off of her pants with a few quick swipes. Next, she tended to the few beads of sweat dripping down her forehead, and after reaching for the ratty cloth with a few questionable stains on it that was tucked into her back pocket, she dabbed away the moisture on her face.

Lifting her hand just above her eyes to prevent the harsh rays of the sun from burning her retinas, she squinted up at the sky and took note of the clear blue sky and white, puffy clouds. It was a rather warm day in Charlotte, North Carolina, but the sweat that had accumulated on her skin was more from the work she had been doing for the majority of the morning rather than the weather.

Alongside her father, Margot helped run an outdoor shooting range. It was nothing close to her idea of a dream job — nor had it been her mother's, when she was still alive — but she knew how much the place meant to her father; although his attachment to the range could be easily missed by the way he spent most of his time inside the office instead of actually doing any of the real work. 

Things had been off ever since Diane Kessler had passed a year earlier due to a particularly rough and unrelenting case of pneumonia. Margot and her father Douglas had never seen eye to eye on a lot of things, but with Diane serving as the glue that held the family together, they got by. Now, however, with it just being the two of them, Margot and her father had drifted further apart than they ever had been. 

Deciding that she had done enough work around the property, what with fixing a few fences and completing the daily round of general upkeep, Margot headed back towards the office to wait for Mr. Coulbert, who would no doubt be arriving soon for another day of trying to teach his reluctant son how to shoot. 

Pulling open the heavy wooden door, Margot stepped inside the small but rather well-kept office and glanced towards the threshold of her father's private room. Like always, the door was shut. Letting out a tired sigh, Margot unclipped the tool belt from around her waist and set it gently down on the counter. 

Moving over to the closed door, Margot knocked a few times. "Come in." the familiar voice of her father said; barely loud enough to be heard through the thick barrier. 

Opening the door just enough to stick her head in through the crack, Margot wasn't surprised to see her father sitting at his desk flipping through the morning paper. "I fixed the loose boards on the East fence," she informed him, knowing he was listening even though his eyes never stopped scanning the words in front of him, "and a few of the targets blew over in the wind last night and broke. I'll fix them later."

"Mhmm," Douglas hummed as he flipped the paper to the next page. "Just make sure it gets done." 

"I will," Margot assured before stepping back and closing the door again. Sometimes she dreamt of waking up one morning and just leaving — going off to live her own life and find what made her happy — but then she remembered one of the last things her mother had said to her and pushed the thought far from her mind. 

"You take care of him for me." Diane had told her daughter during one of her final days. "He is a stubborn man, but he loves you...he will never admit it, but he will need you." 

Just as she stepped behind the desk to begin pulling out the waver forms for the day, the front door opened and a large, rounder man with a scrawny boy by his side entered the office. "Good morning, Mr. Coulbert." Margot greeted the regular customer. "Andrew." she directed a welcoming smile towards the son. 

"Lovely day out isn't it?" Mr. Coulbert began his normal bout of small talk and pleasantries as he began to fill out the waver placed in front of him by the slender, but toned, tall girl. "Sun is shining, the wind is cool but not too strong. Perfect day for shootin', wouldn't you say?"

"I would." Margot agreed as her eyes shifted to Andrew, who like always, was fumbling with his fingers and avoiding eye contact. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the boy hated these regular shooting lessons with his dad, but like a good son, he sucked it up and went through them without a whole lot of arguing or complaining. 

Noticing his son's nervous movements out of the corner of his eye as well, Mr. Coulbert paused his action of filling out the form and sighed. "Why don't you go wait for me at the range?" he suggested. "I'm just gonna finish filling this out and I'll be right down."

"Okay." Andrew nodded as he shifted his weight and headed for the entrance again. Once the door had been shut behind Andrew and he was out of earshot, Mr. Coulbert tutted his tongue against the roof of his mouth and returned to the form in front of him.

After scribbling the last signature at the bottom of the paper, Mr. Coulbert pushed the form back towards Margot. "That boy..." he began, "This country is going to war and I'll be damned if I let my son go over there unprepared and get his damn head blown off."

"Is he enlisting?" Margot cocked a brow as she tucked the signed form away in the filing cabinet to her left. She was sure there was no way a boy like Andrew would volunteer willingly to go into combat. 

"Not if he has any say in it." Mr. Coulbert folded his tanned arms over his broad chest. "But if he thinks there's no chance of getting drafted, he's got another thing coming. He'll be eighteen in a month and he's as healthy as a horse. He's fair game."

Margot felt a wave of sympathy for the boy rush through her. Every time she saw Andrew she could see the fear behind his innocent, glassy eyes. He knew he was a prime candidate for the war and he wanted nothing more than to disappear and escape from it all. Many men were proud to fight for their country, often signing up willingly to put their lives on the line. Andrew, however, was not one of those men. 

Margot understood, though. Who in their right mind would ever want to willingly, and with a smile on their face, go to war? Not her, that's for sure. 

"He's lucky he has a dad who's looking out for him," Margot responded with a smile.

Mr. Coulbert let out a small chuckle. "I don't think he sees it that way, but thank you." he turned and started for the door. "Besides, if women all around the country can do their part by joining WAAC, my son can do his part as well." 

●●●

By the end of the day the shooting range had seen its regulars, along with a few others who dropped by on occasion. The range was by no means a booming business, but with it being the only one in the area, it did okay and made enough to get by. 

Margot had found time in between dealing with customers and her father to fix the broken targets, and after closing up and locking everything away safely for the night, she headed up the path to where her family house sat nestled among pine trees. The family property was only fifteen minutes from the closest large town but still sat far enough away from the city boundaries to be considered rural. It was a beautiful stretch of land that had kept the Kessler's happy ever since Margot was young.

Stepping inside the house, Margot felt a tinge of sadness when she wasn't greeted by the delicious scent of her mother's amazing cooking. Day by day she was slowly adjusting to life without her mother, but sometimes, especially after a long day, a part of her still expected to be welcomed home by her mother's characteristically warm smile and a bowl of delicious beef stew. 

Hearing the TV playing from the living room, Margot knew her dad was sitting in his favourite chair, drinking a beer, and waiting for her to start cooking dinner. Even though Margot had cooked alongside her mother many times before, she didn't possess the same skill that Diane had. Diane could take an armful of seemingly random ingredients and in no time have a mouth-watering meal prepared. 

It was one of the many things Margot missed most about her mother. That, and having someone to talk to. 

Rolling up her sleeves and stepping into the kitchen, Margot washed her hands before deciding what to make for dinner. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to eat, shower, and sleep, in that order. Settling on a simple chicken soup using some leftover chicken from a previous meal, Margot got started on the broth and hoped she could work some magic in the kitchen just like her mother.

When the soup was finished, Margot called for her father and set the table. Margot heard the TV shut off, followed by a grunt as her father stood from his chair. Just as she was setting the bowls down on the table, Douglas shuffled into the kitchen, grabbed another beer from the fridge, and sat down at the table.

The meal was eaten in silence like usual. Diane had always insisted the family sit down together for meals as often as possible, and even though she was no longer around to enforce that rule, and even though Margot and her father had nothing to talk about, the tradition stood. 

Margot tried to ignore the few grunts of critique from her father as he slurped up his bowl as fast as possible. "Too salty," he mumbled after taking a swig of his beer, "Doesn't taste at all like your mother's."

"Well, that's probably because I'm not mother." Margot felt the words slip from her lips before she even had a chance to stop them. In the wake of her exhaustion, her internal filter had apparently switched off for the evening. 

Douglas' spoon paused mid-way to his mouth and he shot a dangerous look at his daughter from across the table. "What, you think I don't know that?" he snapped, catching Margot off guard a little. 

Margot swallowed the lump in her throat before reaching for her glass of water. "I didn't mean it like that," she explained, hoping he would forget the comment and avoid the approaching argument. 

For a moment it looked as if the older man was, for once, going to drop the subject and go back to eating his dinner; but on the flip of a dime he shot out of his chair and with one fluid motion, swiped his arm across the table, sending the half-full bowl of soup and beer bottle flying to the floor. The sound of the smashing bowl and shattering beer bottle sent a shiver up Margot's spine and she instinctively flinched. 

"You think I don't you are aren't your mother?!" Douglas' voice was loud and booming as he shouted at the younger girl. "Trust me, every day I wake up to you instead of her, I am fully aware!" 

With a grunt that came from the darkest parts of his soul, Douglas stormed over to the fridge, grabbed another beer, and turned to head back into the living room. "Clean this up," he demanded before turning the corner and disappearing out of sight.

Sat in silence, Margot stayed where she was and finished her dinner. If that had been the first time she had seen her father lash out like that, she probably would have been scared; probably would have shed a few tears. But it wasn't the first time Margot's father had yelled at her like that. It wasn't the first time he had broken something in a fit of anger. It wasn't the first time he had stormed out, leaving her to clean up the mess.

The words he said to her, though at first glance not seeming too harsh, said something deeper that Margot had come to understand over the passing months. Though he would never admit it outright, Douglas wished that it had been his daughter who had gotten pneumonia and not his beloved wife. 

Margot always tried to remind herself that he was still grieving; that he had lost the love of his life. But she had also lost her mother and her best friend. Why wasn't she allowed to grieve as well?

After finishing her soup and cleaning up after the mess left both from preparing dinner and her father's outburst, Margot headed upstairs to shower and go to bed. It had been a long day, just like the one before, and just like the next one would be. 

●●●

When Margot woke early the next morning at six on the dot, just like she did every morning, she wasted no time getting out of bed and ready for the day. The first few hours of the day were Margot's favourite because while her father was still sleeping she was able to get work done without being yelled at or belittled. 

With a mug of warm coffee in hand and a sweater wrapped tight around her body, Margot stepped out into the morning air and wandered slowly down the dirt path to the shooting range. Going through the motions without even having to think about it, Margot opened up the office, got the forms for the day settled, did a bit of tidying, then made her way out to inspect the range itself.

The range was nothing special, but because of all the hard work Margot put in to keep it in the best condition she could, it did its job. Margot inspected the wooden shelter at the front of the property, making sure all the stations were set up, before heading out into the field to check the targets. Thankfully, no more had fallen over and broken, so she was happy about that. 

On the way back up the field, Margot noticed a slightly crumpled piece of paper tumbling along the ground slowly with the breeze and moved to pick it up. Unfolding the paper and taking in the bright colours and bold words, Margot read over the flyer. 

With a bright American flag in the background, a woman in an army uniform stood front and center. At the top read,  **WAAC** , while the bottom read,  **THIS IS MY WAR TOO! WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS. UNITED STATES ARMY.**

As much as Margot admired the women of WAAC for stepping in and doing their parts as switchboard operators, mechanics, and bakers, she didn't think that kind of job was for her. Folding the flyer and stuffing it into her back pocket, Margot shook her head and scoffed. She had enough work to do around the range as it was and she was sure that the United States Army could win the war without her help.

Before Margot knew it another day had come and gone. She dealt with her regulars, including Mr. Coulbert and Andrew, and kept up with the daily tasks. Douglas had come down from the house around noon and disappeared into his office, where he stayed the whole day until finally emerging hours later just as Margot was locking up for the night. "Don't forget to check the ammunition inventory," he told her as he slipped out the office door as she was arranging some papers in the filing cabinet. 

"Wouldn't want to forget that." she huffed to herself as she stuffed the last paper away and closed the drawer. 

Making her way to the range shelter after locking up the office to get the inventory count done as soon as possible, Margot felt a headache begin to build in her temples. Unlocking the small storage room where they kept ammo and guns that customers could pay a little extra to borrow if they didn't have their own, Margot stepped in front of the ammo shelves and grumbled. 

Picking up the clipboard with the inventory checklist sheets, she reached up for the first box of ammo and began to pull it down from the shelf, too caught up in her growing headache and exhaustion to realize the box was pulling along another one with it. Before she had a chance to stop the disaster, the second box tumbled to the ground, spilling the ammunition everywhere with a loud  _bang_. 

Feeling the frustration in her bones, Margot let out a whimper of pure irritation and got down on her knees to begin picking up the scattered boxes and loose bullets. Each copper bullet her fingers plucked off the ground sent a jolt of anger through her body. How much longer could she put up with this?

After throwing the final box of ammo into the bin, Margot moved from sitting on her knees to sitting criss-cross and leaned back against the wall. With a tired, guttural groan, she ran her hands over her face, pressing her fingertips into her skin and trying desperately to claw the frustration, sadness, anger, and many other emotions out of her. 

"If you could see me now," Margot let out a delirium-fueled laugh at the thought of her mother watching over her at that very moment. Diane had always wanted the best for her daughter; often encouraging her to try new things and find her passion in life. Margot knew that this was not what her mother had meant when she told her to work hard for what she wanted. 

There was no doubt that she was working hard, but this was most certainly  _not_ what she wanted. 

As Margot shifted into a more comfortable position, she heard the faint crumpling of the flyer she had stuffed into her pocket and reached back to pull it out again. As she unfolded the paper and stared at the picture of the woman in the army uniform, she didn't wonder about how foolish it seemed to volunteer to serve your country, or how hard it was to leave everything behind to do your part. 

Instead, she admired the woman on the flyer. She looked happy. She looked proud. 

As the sun began to dip behind the horizon, leaving the sky a beautiful shade of orange, Margot sat on the floor of the supply room and stared at the WAAC flyer in her hands. She knew her father was up at the house waiting for her to cook dinner, but at that moment, nothing could force her to stand up and actively participate in the misery that was her life. 

She wasn't sure why or how, but she knew it was time for a change; time for a new beginning.


	3. WAAC

Margot was certain that trying to talk to her father about joining the WAAC would serve as nothing more than fuel for another argument. She predicted he would be angry at first, yelling at her about leaving him and the range, and then he would switch into guilt-tripping her, asking her things along the lines of, "Do you think this is what your mother would want?"

Margot wished to avoid all that, partially because she believed it would just make her father more volatile, and partially because she was worried that the guilt-tripping might actually work. While Margot tossed around the idea of leaving in her head over the few days since she had discovered the flyer and had her epiphany, the only thing that nagged at her and threatened to deter her was her mother. Margot had promised to look after her father for her. How could she break that promise?

However, Margot also believed that if her mother could see how miserable she was, she would want her to go and try something new. Something like WAAC was the exact thing Diane Kessler would have supported for her daughter. It was new, it was brave, and it was full of opportunities. 

So, instead of talking, Margot decided to leave a note. Early the following Monday, with all of her things packed and ready to go, Margot placed the note she had carefully written for her father on the kitchen table and left her family home. 

_Dearest Dad,_

_This note will probably come as a surprise to you, but I want you to know that I did not make this decision lightly or without careful consideration. By the time you are reading this, I will have already left to join the women's army auxiliary corps. I know it is not something you would have allowed, but it is something I need to do; for me._

_Every time I thought about leaving in the past I was always stopped by the memories of Mom and how she always wished to see us get along better, but as we both know, without her here anymore, there just isn't a possibility of that happening. She was your favourite person in the whole world, and she was my favourite person in the whole world. We both wish she were here instead of each other. I know this constant fighting and hostility towards each other isn't what she would have wanted, so I have decided to find my own path in life._

_I've left the keys to the office beside this note along with a list of instructions. I know it's been a while since you've run the place on your own, but I have every confidence that you can once again run it as smoothly as you did when Mom was still around._

_We both know we have had our differences in life, and I don't expect that to ever fully change, but I hope one day in the future when we have both found new happiness in the world we can re-connect. I don't know where I will be going, nor do I have any idea how long I will be there, but I will write to you as soon as I can so you can have my mailing address...should you wish to keep in touch._

_I love you very much, Dad._

_-Margot_

●●●

Walking into the WAAC recruitment office later that day, Margot felt a rush of nerves wash over her; something she hadn't experienced in quite a while. Running the shooting range was a series of repetitive tasks that had to be done, and since all she did was run the range and take care of her father, she rarely did anything new or exciting that required her to feel nervous.

Stepping up to the front desk, Margot signed in with the receptionist before heading to the waiting room until her name was called by a recruitment officer. Sitting back in her chair, her eyes wandered around the room, eyes locking onto a few other women who were sitting around her. One was a middle-aged lady with a sharp looking pencil skirt and bright red lipstick. She didn't look the least bit nervous or on edge as she flipped through a magazine she had picked up from the table on her right. 

The second was a younger looking girl, no older than Margot herself. She had curly red hair and round, bright eyes. Her bottom lip was tucked up and under her front teeth as she chewed on it, her eyes darting around like prey in the forest. 

The third woman was someone Margot couldn't really figure out. She was dressed head to toe in some of the fanciest clothes Margot had ever seen, and at her feet, sleeping soundly in a carrier, was an infant. Before Margot had the chance to try and figure out why a new mother would want to leave her child, a door from the opposite wall opened.

With a smile plastered on her face, the blonde woman who exited the office with a stack of papers in her hands served as a boost of confidence for Margot. If that woman, whoever she was, could leave feeling so happy, so could she.

Stepping around from behind the door, a well-dressed man glanced around the waiting room. "Margot Kessler," he called, trying to identify his next client out of the three possible choices. When Margot stood and stepped towards him, he flashed her a wide smile and ushered her into the office.

Once the door was shut again and the man was sitting across from Margot at his desk, he leaned back and folded his hands together, interlocking his fingers. "So, you're interested in joining WAAC?" the man started, causing Margot to blow a puff of air out her nose. It was the first time she had heard the abbreviated name out loud and in her opinion, it sounded a little ridiculous. 

"Yes," Margot nodded.

Reaching for a pen, the man pulled out a slip of paper and began to jot down a few notes. What he had to write down Margot had no idea since the meeting had only just begun, but nevertheless, she let him finish before speaking again.

"I saw a flyer and thought it could be something worth looking into." Margot kept her answer short and to-the-point. 

The man hummed to prove he was listening as his eyes scanned her up and down. "What is your work experience?" he asked.

Margot thought about the endless hours she had spent tending to the range and struggled to find the right words to describe it. "I've been a handyman of sorts and a receptionist for the past year or so." she finally answered. 

The man's mouth pressed into a tight line and one eyebrow shot up. "A handyman and a receptionist?" he repeated, confusion clear in his tone.

"Yes, sir." Margot understood how her answer could have seemed confusing. "I pretty much ran a shooting range single-handedly." she clarified. 

"A shooting range." the man's eyes sparkled with interest as he sat forward in his seat and folded his arms over his desk. "Have you ever fired a gun before?"

Margot gave the man a quizzical look before nodding, unsure how her weapon history had anything to do with operating a switchboard or baking bread. "Yes, many times," she stated. 

"Don't hear that every day." the man chuckled as he pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out a stack of papers; the same stack Margot had seen the girl before her leave with. "This right here is some reading material for you." he slid the stack across the desk. "It pretty much outlines the whole process and what you will be expected to do."

Margot turned the stack around so she could read it and began to flip through the packet, her eyes lazily scanning the pages to pick up the gist of the information. She would read it more carefully later. "This here..." the man reached across the desk, flipped to one of the last pages, and pointed at a date. "...is when the testing will be held. It's a day-long evaluation that will serve to make sure you are put in the right specialty."

Margot looked up from the page and smirked. "Like a high school career survey?"

The man laughed and shrugged his shoulders as he sat back again. "Like a high school career survey." he echoed her observation. "I guess you could say that. From there, they will give you your training dates."

Margot felt the nervous weight lift from her shoulders as she scanned a few more paragraphs of information. When the man across from her remained silent, she took that as a cue that the meeting was over. "Is that it?" she questioned, a part of her expecting there to be more.

"That's it." the man affirmed. "Easy, right? All I do is tell you what to expect, where to go, and when. The hard stuff comes later."

Standing up, Margot picked up the stack of paper and pushed in her chair. "Well, thank you so much." she smiled as she headed for the door.

"No, thank you." the man retorted as he stood to follow her and call in the next candidate. "I wish you luck, Miss. Kessler." he pulled open the door and allowed her to step out first. "And remember, this is your war too!" 

●●●

One week later, on an overcast, gloomy Saturday, Margot arrived at the testing facility around eight in the morning with a smile on her face and a feeling of pride coursing through her. She was surrounded by at least a hundred other women, all of whom looked just as happy as she did to be there. 

When they were finally let into the large, gymnasium-type room, they were instructed to take a seat at one of the many desks and await instructions. Margot did as she was told and followed the pack of other girls into the room to find a seat.

After everyone was settled, a sharp-dressed woman with her hair slicked back into a tight ponytail moved to the front of the room and a silence fell over the anxiously-chatty test-takers. Margot, however, had yet to find a friend among the group of women. She was more focused on what she was there to do; test for the WAAC. 

"Thank you all for being here today." the woman began, her hands clapping together as she welcomed the women in front of her. "Today you are all here to test for the WAAC, but I don't want the word 'test' to frighten you. There is no failing here today; only providing us with the information needed to place you in the best possible specialty. Throughout the day you will be asked to complete a number of tests and surveys with breaks in between. Each test and survey is designed to bring to light your knowledge, skills, and passions."

Some of the women began to mumble among themselves about how they were less nervous and how they were beginning to feel more excited. Margot hadn't really felt a whole lot of nerves yet, but the woman's words did make her feel a little less self-conscious about her abilities. She was very good with hands-on tasks but dealing with on-paper tests like math was not one of her strong suits.

"As some of you may know, the WAAC has three primary specialties." the woman at the front of the room continued, pulling Margot from her train of thought. "Those of you who show intelligence will be placed as a switchboard operator, those of you who show mechanical aptitude and problem-solving skills will be placed as a mechanic, and those of you who show passion will be placed as a baker."

Margot couldn't help but snort at that last statement, which was a very nice way of saying that the idiots would be placed in the kitchen where they could do the least amount of harm. It made sense though when Margot thought about it. The WAAC needed everyone they could get, but some people just weren't cut out for the really mentally and physically demanding tasks. It was like giving every kid at the race a participation award so they felt included.

"The first few papers, which are being handed out to you now, are a simple survey about you to start things off easy." the woman at the front began to wind down her speech as a few of the helpers for the day moved through the rows of desks, handing out papers to everyone. "I wish each and every one of you luck, and on behalf of the United States of America, thank you for joining WAAC."

There was a small round of applause for the woman as she stepped away from the center of attention, but once the final papers had been handed out, the room fell back into complete silence as everyone focused on answering the questions in front of them. 

The day was a long one, and Margot felt mental exhaustion begin to hit her around noon as she made her way through a maths test. It was mostly simple stuff from high school that she had done before, and even though she knew that she had once been able to complete problems like those in the past, her abilities then were less than up to par. 

A few of the surveys, which did remind Margot strongly of high school career aptitude tests, asked a few questions that threw her off a little. One asked if she had ever fired a weapon before, another asked if she was comfortable with doing copious amounts of physical labour, and one that really stood out asked if she had any problems working among a large group of men. Margot was confused by all of them, but the last one really threw her for a curve. She was joining the WAAC, 'women' was in the title. Why would she ever have to worry about working with large groups of men? Surely she would be spending the majority of her time with her fellow women.

Despite the weird feeling she had about the questions, Margot checked yes to having fired a gun before and to being comfortable with doing copious amounts of physical labour, and no to having a problem working among men. She had grown up on a shooting range, and those typically weren't frequented by many women.

After having handed in their final papers around four in the afternoon, the women were told to grab some food and water and sit tight while their scores were added up and their specialties were decided. 

Just before five, the woman from before gathered everyone's attention once more. "Okay everyone," she smiled, her own exhaustion prominent on her face as she smiled weakly. "The scores are all tallied up out of one-hundred and the specialties have been decided. Once you find your name, score, and specialty, please step to the side table to pick up the relevant information. I thank you all once more for coming out today, and good luck!"

As the woman let her positive facade fade away, she stepped to the side to reveal a cork board with about ten papers pinned to it. The group of women around Margot eagerly rushed forward, sweeping her along with them. 

A few excited cheers broke out around her as women figured out their scores and WAAC assignments. Scanning through the lists of names, which were printed alphabetically by last name, Margot finally found herself along with a few other last names that started with K and traced her finger along the line.

Her score out of 100 was 85, which she was happy with. She was sure it was the maths that had brought her mark down, but she had expected a score around that number. The confusion came, however, when her specialty read **N/A.**  Worried she was reading the wrong line, she went back, found her name again, and traced her finger carefully along her row.  **N/A** again.

By then most of the girls had found their names and moved on to gather their information, but two girls stood on either side of Margot, their faces flushed with confusion as well. "Does your specialty say N/A?" Margot asked, hoping she wasn't the only one dealing with this problem.

"Yes." the two girls answered in unison, the three of them sharing looks of bewilderment and disappointment. Had the woman in charge lied when she said there was no failing? Had the three of them done something on their tests to prove they weren't capable of being in the WAAC?

When the last woman had gathered her information pamphlets and hurried out the door, leaving the three women still standing there in front of the cork board, the woman who had run the day of testing, along with the two men who had been helping her out, turned to Margot and the other two. 

 "I'm sure you have questions." the woman began to head out of the room, her ponytail swishing back and forth as she swayed with every step. "Follow me." she gestured for the three, very confused women to walk with her. "Let's talk."


	4. Camp Mirage

Staring out the window at the passing landscape, Margot ran her hands through her short, just above shoulder-length, black hair and let out a sigh. The past day or so had been a whirlwind of unexpected twists and turns that had left her mentally exhausted and thoroughly confused about her future. 

After the WAAC testing instructor had explained to Margot and the two other girls that they had been selected for a 'new experiment the Army was trying out' based on their test results, she and her two comrades had been left speechless, while at the same time asking a million questions a minute. They were given little answers, however, instead simply being handed a slip of paper and told, "If you wish to continue with the program, be at the given address on the given date at the given time with your bags packed." 

The secrecy had been gnawing away at Margot ever since she had stepped out of that office with the address, date, and time. A part of her told her to throw the paper away and request to be placed with the other girls at the WAAC training center in Iowa, but another, bigger part, told her to take the opportunity; be spontaneous. 

So, spontaneous she was. Margot arrived bright and early to the given address and was met by one of the other girls, Janet, who had also received an N/A on her specialty placement. Not long after a bus pulled into the parking lot; the driver opening the front doors and calling their names. Both Margot and Janet exchanged looks of confusion and hesitation but after the driver explained that he worked for WAAC recruitment, the two women approached the bus with their belongings. 

Boarding the vehicle, the two women glanced at the few individuals already on board before choosing a seat near the front and settling in. After another twenty minutes or so of waiting for the third woman from the testing facility, the driver concluded that she wasn't coming, closed the doors back up again, and drove off. 

Trying to get into a comfortable position with her duffle bag half squished between her legs and half resting in her lap, Margot turned to Janet, her voice low as she spoke. "Have you any idea where we are going?" 

Janet, who was a bit older than Margot, brushed a lock of brown hair out of her eyes and shrugged. "I tried to call the WAAC head office to get some more answers but it was pretty much like talking to a brick wall," she answered, her head turning to look at the other women on the bus. "All I was told is it's some training camp."

Margot nodded along, trying her best to come across as satisfied with the little information Janet had. "Is it in North Carolina?" the tall, slender woman asked.

Janet shook her head and pointed out the window as the bus turned onto the exit for the highway. "I don't think so."

●●●

A little over three hours later, after making numerous stops to pick up different women in different towns, the bus slowed to a halt somewhere just outside of Asheville, Tennessee. "This is it, ladies." the bus driver announced as he shifted the bus into park and opened the front doors. "Camp Mirage." 

The women on the bus broke out into hushed conversations among themselves, and although Margot could hear Janet saying something from behind her, she was focused on the large wooden sign outside the window that read  **Camp Mirage** , and underneath it in smaller letters,  **Women's Army Training Camp.**

"Army training camp," Margot said out loud, not sure how she felt about the feeling of the words on her tongue. What on Earth were her and about ten other women doing at an Army training camp? They were supposed to be at a WAAC training facility. That was not what they had all signed up for.

As the women around her began to exit the bus, Margot felt Janet tap her on the shoulder and finally looked away from the window. "You okay?" Janet checked as she stood up and lifted her bag into her arms.

"Yeah," Margot shook off the uneasy feeling that was slowly building in the pit of her stomach. "Just nervous is all." 

After disembarking from the bus with the rest of the women, Margot followed the small group into the camp where a man dressed head to toe in an Army uniform directed them to join a slightly larger group of women. Doing as they were told, the North Carolinians joined the small crowd and awaited further instructions. 

Margot, at that point, was more than thoroughly confused. She had no idea what this place was or what she was doing there. Before she had a chance to find Janet among the crowd and talk her ear off with more questions, another bus pulled to a stop in front of the camp. Only five women got off, and when they had joined the rest of the group, yet another man in a uniform stepped in front of them and called for their attention.

"Good morning, ladies!" the man seemed more enthusiastic than the approximately 40-50 women in front of him combined. "Welcome to Camp Mirage, the first ever American women's Army training camp."

Clearing her throat slightly, a mousy girl in the front slowly rose her hand, indicating she had a question. When the man called on her, she simply asked: "Sir, why are we here?" The crowd nodded along to the question, everyone wondering that same exact thing just as much as the next. 

"I know this must be confusing, but for reasons that the Army has yet to disclose, this operation is still on a need-to-know basis." the man spoke firmly, yet his demeanor said he wasn't bothered in the least by the inquiry. "However, to put things simply, you are here to answer a question that has been circulating the American population for months now; it all starting with the formation of WAAC. That question being: Can women fight in combat?"

The group of women gasped before erupting into nervous babbling. Some women shouted question after question at the man before them while others simply picked up their bags and started heading for the exit. 

Holding his hands up to calm the crowd of women, the man managed to regain their attention before continuing. "I know this aspect may seem frightening to many of you, and if you wish to leave, there is no one stopping you. The bus that brought you here can just as easily take you home; however, I don't think you want to go." a knowing smirk spread across the man's face. "Each and every one of you are here because your WAAC tests indicated that there was something that stood out about you. Each and every one of you decided that what you wanted to do more than anything else was serve your country. Today, I am giving you that chance. This, my dears, is a once in a lifetime opportunity." 

With that, some of the women, who not five minutes ago had been dead set on leaving, turned back around and listened to what this man had to say. The way he spoke with such gusto and passion made every nagging fear telling Margot to leave and never look back melt away. 

Knowing that he had the full and undivided attention of everyone around him, the man smiled wide and clasped his hands together. "My name is Captain Miller and I am, for lack of a better word, the director of this camp." he finally introduced himself. "Over the next five days, you will train like a soldier. You will run harder than you've ever run before, you will jump higher than you've ever jumped before, and if I have anything to do with it, you will be better than you've ever been before. This camp is only the first step ladies, and I will warn you now, not everyone is going to make it through. Some of you will quit after the first day, others after the first three, and by the end of the five days, only about one or two of you will have shown you have what it takes to train with the men in Georgia. Maybe all of you have what it takes, maybe none of you do. Every task you are asked to perform will be evaluated. Every move you make will be watched. To move on you need to be better than the best. Those of you who don't make it will be sent to the WAAC training facility in Iowa, should you still wish to pursue a career with the Army. This isn't fixing cars or baking bread ladies, this is combat. This is dirt, sweat, death, blood, and tears. This is war."

By the end of the longwinded speech, the women in the crowd were completely and utterly at a loss for words. Margot had no idea whether to high tail it for the hills or ask how soon she could start training. 

One woman in the crowd, the small mousy girl in the front who had spoken up before, was probably the only one who knew exactly how she felt about the situation. Small and quiet Antonia Winslow from New Haven, Connecticut was the furthest away from home she had ever been in her whole life, and yet, she didn't worry for a second. Driven by the burning desire to prove herself as more than just a housewife in the making, she was eager for the opportunity to be the best of the best. 

Neither Margot nor Antonia knew just how much Camp Mirage was going to change their lives, but with determination and heads held high, they both joined the group of women moving over to sign the papers and officially enroll in the first-ever women's Army training camp.


	5. Group B

The five-day schedules the women had received for their time at Camp Mirage were hectic and jam-packed with a slew of different activities; many of which the women had never heard of before. The Camp Mirage ladies had been split up into three different groups of which bunked together and trained together. The groups had different training exercises scheduled for different times, but every day, no matter what group you were in, began at six in the morning and didn't end until about ten at night. 

Setting her bag down on the trunk at the end of her bed, Margot took a seat on the thin, hard mattress and began to read over her schedule for the following day. The first day allowed for the women to settle in and get to know each other, but the relaxed state of the camp would cease to exist in roughly fifteen hours when the first day of training began.

The billet where Margot was staying along with the other Group B women was small and about as bare minimum as it got. Margot knew that a drastic change like that would be a rude awakening for many of the trainees, but she also knew that should anyone make it past the upcoming five days, the male training camp wouldn't take it easy on them. It was better to get used to the rough Army living conditions as soon as possible. 

"Six AM, breakfast in the mess hall." one of the women began to read her schedule out loud. "Six-thirty, map and compass basics. Seven-thirty, four-mile run...obstacle course, eight-mile march...weapons training?" she looked up at the rest of the women with a look of disbelief. "Like...guns?"

"Didn't you hear what Captain Miller said, Cathleen?" the woman next to her, who was obviously a friend, or at least an acquaintance, scoffed. "This is war. You can't very well go into combat without a weapon."

A woman with lush, wavy dark brown hair and a round face placed her hands on her hips. "He can't actually mean war when he says 'war'...can he? Like digging trenches and shooting people?" 

"I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's what war is," Margot spoke up, eager to let her fellow trainees know she wasn't one to shy away from a difficult task. "If it's what we have to do, it's what we have to do."

Hearing an affirmative hum, Margot turned to see the young, mousy blonde girl from before nodding along with her statement. The girl was skinny and looked no older than eighteen at the very most. With a quick glance up and down, Margot had decided in a matter of seconds that the girl from Connecticut wouldn't even last the first day. 

After the eight members of Group B had settled into their billet, they changed into the jumpsuits and boots that had been laid out for them and decided to explore the camp and introduce themselves to each other. Margot knew that while the women around her were going to be her best friends for the next five days, they would also be her competition. She had to stay on her toes and make sure no one pulled any tricks over on her. 

Antonia Winslow — or as she preferred to be called, Annie — had an entirely different outlook on the situation. Instead of being filled with a desire to leave everyone in the dust behind her, she wished that as many ladies as possible would be able to make it through the five-day stint at Camp Mirage. If she were, for some seemingly impossible reason, going to find herself on the front lines of a war in her future, she wanted a strong woman by her side. 

As the group wandered the camp grounds, taking in the sights like the obstacle course and the classrooms, Annie stayed near the back of the pack and listened to the other women chat among themselves. She was way too busy looking around to contribute any meaningful dialogue to the conversation and was perfectly happy to just listen. 

She did, however, pay close attention when the women began introducing themselves to one another. First was the woman who had recited the contents of her schedule in the billets; her name was Cathleen Carr and she had been a waitress before deciding to enlist in the WAAC. Next was the woman Cathleen had met on the bus trip over, Marion Write, a seamstress from Jacksonville, Florida. 

The woman with the lush, wavy hair and round face was Sandra Hughes, a beauty boutique owner from somewhere in Georgia. Then there was Betty Warren and Lena Morton, both housewives from Virginia. Francine Kennedy was a former school teacher from Raleigh, North Carolina; and finally, Margot Kessler, a shooting range owner from Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Annie smiled to herself as she listened to the women talk about their home lives and what drew them towards joining the WAAC. Annie herself lived at home in New Haven with her two parents, Elaine and Arthur Winslow, and her two brothers and one sister, Philip, Timothy, and Julia. 

If there was anyone who had a seemingly perfect home life, it was Annie. She graduated high school top of her class, she had a big loving family, and she had a boyfriend who she was head over heels in love with. But despite all of these things, Annie couldn't help but feel like she had so much more inside of herself to offer the world. 

When she saw the WAAC poster in her local grocery store, Annie had known right away that that was what she wanted to do; what she needed to do. At first, her parents hadn't been on board, but after some persistent coaxing, she finally got them to agree. Annie didn't  _need_  her parent's approval, but she wanted it. 

However, she wasn't so sure how they would feel about combat. Getting them to allow to their daughter to operate a switchboard or simply baking for the WAAC was hard enough, but now that the prospect of actually going to war was on the table, Annie decided that she would only worry her parents if she had to. For the time being, she was, in their eyes, indeed at a WAAC training facility, and until anything changed, she wouldn't tell them otherwise. 

When you looked at the simple facts though, she was at Camp Mirage with women from all over the lower half of the East Coast who all shared the same dream — more or less; to serve their country. 

●●●

As the sun began to set and the women gathered in the mess hall for dinner, Annie noticed a significant drop in the number of women compared to how many there had been during the speech Captain Miller had given. The energetic, empowering haze the speech had given the crowd must have worn off because what once was a group of about fifty women was now only about twenty-five. There were ten women in Group A, eight in Group B, and seven in Group C. 

Gathering their trays and letting the cooks load up whatever was on the menu for that evening, the women sat down for their meals; the majority of them just sticking to their assigned groups. However, a few did mingle with the others. Ethyl Brown from Group C was one of them. 

Sitting down at the end of the long table, Annie placed herself beside Lena, who after her, was the second quietest of the group. Peering down at her tray, she, along with the others, attempted to identify what in hell they were supposed to be eating. 

"Maybe it's meatloaf?" Cathleen suggested as the broke off the smallest corner of the food lump with her fork and bravely placed it into her mouth. The table watched as she chewed slowly, her face presenting an array of different emotions before she swallowed hard and took a long sip of her water. "Definitely not meatloaf." she concluded, "But it's not half bad."

"Not half bad?" Sandra scoffed. "I saw how fast you went for your water."

With a small smirk playing at the corners of her lips, Cathleen broke off another, larger chunk and shoved it into her mouth. "It's just dry," she mumbled through the mystery substance. "Just try it for yourself if you don't believe me." 

Margot was the next bravest, and after taking a bite, she echoed Cathleen's summary of the food being dry, but not disgusting. Before long, the entire table had dug in and buried themselves deep in conversation about this and that. Well, almost the entire table.

"I think I'll pass." Sandra gently pushed her tray away like a fussy toddler. "Maybe whatever they're serving for breakfast tomorrow will be edible."

"Suit yourself." Francine shrugged from beside her. "But you're gonna be wanting all the energy you can get when you're marching — what was it, eight miles? — in the hot afternoon sun." 

Annie, who knew her small figure was already holding her back purely for appearance's sake, shoveled the food into her mouth as fast as she could. Like Francine had said, she wanted all the strength she could get. As she dug her fork into a pile of what might have been peas, a person slumped down on her right side, startling her a little. 

"Hiya." the chipper girl with a smile that stretched from one side of her face to the other greeted. "I'm Ethyl Brown. Group C."

Annie eyed the girl for a moment before responding. "Annie," she spoke for the first time since Captain Miller's speech. "Annie Winslow."

"Pleasure to meet you, Annie Winslow." Ethyl grabbed Annie's hand and shook it enthusiastically. "So, what do you think about all this?"

Annie placed her fork down on her tray and furrowed her blonde eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Going to war." Ethyl leaned in and whispered as if it were some big secret that needed to be protected. "I heard from a friend back home that they're actually planning to send some of us to the front lines with the men."

Annie sighed internally. Why did everyone seem to think it was such a big deal to send women into war? If men could do it, why couldn't they? "Yeah." Annie played along with the girl's amazement. "Crazy, isn't it?"

"I, for one, do  _not_ think I could do it." Ethyl confessed as she shifted slightly to scratch a spot on her back. "Sleeping outside in the mud and rain, carrying around all that equipment. Only a lunatic would sign up for that."

Annie was about to ask the girl why she was even there in the first place then, but before she could get the words out of her mouth, Ethyl patted her on the arm and stood up. "Well, I'm gonna go meet some of the other girls. See you later!"

With that, Annie went back to eating the rest of her food and keeping to herself. Maybe what she had thought earlier about wanting everyone to succeed was a lie, because she was quite sure after only one meeting that she did not want Ethyl Brown beside her in a foxhole. 

●●●

When it was finally time to tuck in for the night, the women of Group B climbed into their small, hard beds and bid each other goodnight. Neither one of the eight members of Group B — nor any one of the twenty-five of them in total — had even the slightest idea what the following day held for them. 

Some, like Sandra, Betty, and Ethyl had trouble sleeping; their minds keeping them up with worry. Others, like Margot, Cathleen, and Annie, found sleep quickly, excited for what was to come and wanting to be as rested as possible. 

The next five days were going to be some of the hardest the women of Camp Mirage had ever faced in their entire lives. As Captain Miller had stated, some would leave voluntarily, others would be forced to pack up and go home, and maybe, just maybe, one or two would prevail against all odds.


	6. Five Long Days

At six AM sharp the door to Group B's billet burst open, jolting a few of the women awake. "Rise and shine!" an unfamiliar male voice bellowed, stirring the few who had managed to sleep through the previous ruckus. "Chow time, ladies! Get it while the getting's good because at six-thirty we've got maps and compasses and you won't get another shot at food until twelve-thirty."

Just as soon as the man had stormed into the billet, he was gone again. Margot could still hear the faint shouting, but her focus was mainly on her heartbeat, which was just starting to return to a normal pace after the abrupt awakening. 

"No matter how much sleep you get, six always comes way too early," Francine grumbled as she flipped the covers off of herself dramatically and swung her legs over the side of the bed. 

"I already want to quit." Marion began to get ready, not awake enough to realize that she was trying to stuff her left foot into her right boot. 

Despite the sleepy complaints and mindless groans, the women were in their jumpsuits and boots in a matter of minutes. Once they were all ready, they turned for the door. 

"Wait." a small voice stopped them in their tracks. Spinning to face the noise, the women stared back at Annie, who was still standing beside her footlocker. "We have to make the beds," she told the group when they shot her puzzling looks. 

"Right," Betty smiled as she headed back towards her assigned bed. "Thanks, Annie." 

With a small smile on her face, Annie got to work on her bed while the rest of the women did the same. A minute later the beds were made, the billet looking how did when they had first arrived the day before, and the women of Group B headed to the mess hall.

Breakfast was a rather quiet affair, and after finishing their bowls of oatmeal just before six-thirty, Margot lead the way to the classroom where their first maps and compasses class was being held. 

With mostly open minds about the subject, the women sat down in their seats, willing to learn. Right when the clock struck six-thirty, a man walked through the door and situated himself at the front of the room. His dark hair was cut a little longer than a buzz cut and his face was cleanly shaven. Dressed from head to toe in uniform, just like Captain Miller had been, he radiated authority. 

"My name is Lieutenant Shaw and I will be your group leader for the next five days." the man began to introduce himself, his loud, attention-demanding voice throwing a blanket of silence over the room. Margot recognized the voice as the one that had woken them up that morning. "You will refer to me as Lieutenant Shaw or Lieutenant. My job is to make you the smartest, toughest, and fastest group of Army women this country has ever seen. You will do what I say, when I say it, without any complaining. If you listen to me and my instructions, you might just make it through this training camp. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Lieutenant." the room answered in unison. 

"Good," Lieutenant Shaw nodded before turning to the wall of maps behind him. "First lesson of the first day: maps and compasses."

For an hour the women of Group B learned how to navigate with a map and compass. First, they learned how to read maps, then compasses, and finally they moved on to the basics of plotting a course using the two tools combined. 

Margot found the information to be a lot at once. After a few tries, she could work her way around a map. Using the compass was a little more difficult for her because she had never even held one before, but the hardest part was plotting courses. When her map reading was right, her compass was off, and vice versa. 

Annie, however, picked up the skill in no time. Drawing on her previous knowledge that she had obtained through high school geography classes, she was able to get back up to speed and pick up the new information like it was a walk in the park. 

Throughout the class, Lieutenant Shaw observed the women, jotting down notes about each girl and their progress with the class. Some he noticed had a natural talent while others made up for the lack thereof with hard work and a strong desire to learn. There were a few who seemed altogether uninterested in the task, and he made sure to write that down as well. 

At seven-thirty the girls were dismissed and told to change into their PT gear for the four-mile run. This was the first real test the women would be facing, and with the hot sun high in the sky and not a single cloud in sight, a hard test it would be. 

Margot faired much better at this activity than the last and managed to keep a steady pace at the front of the group with Lena and Marion for the whole four miles. Annie struggled at some parts, especially the uphill ones, to stick with the other girls, but she was determined to stay in the middle of the group as much as possible and actively avoided being last. By the end of the run, her legs ached something fierce, but she didn't let it show for even a fraction of a second. She didn't need the other girls, or Lieutenant Shaw for that matter, thinking she was weak.

After a short break where the girls were allowed to catch their breaths and drink some water, they headed over to the obstacle course where they high stepped through tires, swung across a small moat of water, crawled through the dirt under strands of wire, and climbed up and over the wall at the end. 

One after the other the women went through the course with Lieutenant Shaw half yelling, half encouraging them along the way. "Again!" he shouted over and over until each and every member of Group B made it through the course without too much trouble. Most of the women got the hang of it after a few tries, but Annie, the smallest of the bunch, continued to fight against the tires and the wall. Her little legs could only lift so high and her short arms could only reach so far. 

After what seemed like hours upon hours of going over the course, the women were finally dismissed for lunch. Letting out sighs of relief, Group B slowly trudged towards the mess hall; their jumpsuits covered in grass stains, sweat, and dirt. 

"I feel like I might actually fall apart." Betty craned her neck to the sides, a few small pops releasing as she did. "I haven't been this exhausted in...ever."

"Well, enjoy the rest while you have it," Margot told her as she reached for her bottle of lukewarm water. "Next is the march, then weapons training, another few hours of classroom instruction, dinner, showers, bed, then do it all again tomorrow."

A soft whimper came from the end of the table and the women turned to look at Sandra, who was staring blankly down at her food. "I can't do this." she moaned, her eyes trained on the plate of mushy rice and some sort of meat in front of her. "Everything hurts. Why did I agree to do this?"

"You can always quit," Cathleen suggested flatly, earning her an elbow in the ribs from Marion.

"Hey," Marion spoke softly to the quickly crumbling woman in front of her. "Don't give up yet. I know it sucks now, but your body will get used to it. Trust me."

Her face lifting slightly, Sandra forced a small smile as she picked up her fork and pushed some food around on her plate. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"I'm always right." Marion beamed gleefully. "Now eat your food. You need the energy."

 As the conversation switched back to something a little more neutral and easy-going, Margot glanced over at Annie, who was sitting at the end of the bench, quiet as ever. At first, Margot had been sure the girl would crack under the pressure, but so far all she had seen was a determined young woman who took every challenge that was thrown at her head on. Maybe she had been wrong, but then again, this  _was_  only the first day. 

The eight-mile march wasn't as bad as the woman had initially expected. Sure, they had been loaded with weighted backpacks and such to imitate all the gear they would be carrying into combat, but with the afternoon came a light, cool breeze. They didn't have to run or jog, only march, so by the time they had reached camp again two hours later, their spirits were high. 

Weapons training, however, was a whole other story. To put it bluntly, Margot was the only one in Group B who had even a faint idea of what to do. She knew well enough how to take the gun apart, put it back together, and fire it. The M1 Garand was the standard issued rifle of the Army at the time, and although Margot had never used that one exactly before, she picked up on how it worked pretty fast. 

Before long, both her and Lieutenant Shaw were teaching the others the basics. As Lieutenant Shaw watched the girls fumble with the rifles and shy away at even touching them, he began to think this whole 'women in the Army' experiment had been nothing but one big mistake. The most important thing in war was being able to protect yourself, and if these women couldn't even do that, then they didn't stand a chance.

The day of classes and training ended with another in-class session where the women learned Army lingo, hand motions, and basic skills they would need in the field. After the long and physically demanding day they had had, however, the women were grateful for a few hours of sitting down and listening. 

Dinner, like breakfast, was quiet as well. The women grabbed their trays, slid into the long mess hall tables, and ate. Everyone was exhausted and sore and wanted nothing more than to shower and sleep. 

"Good evening, ladies!" Captain Miller marched into the mess hall, addressing the three groups of trainees. "I hope everyone had a good first day. Many of you are probably extremely mentally and physically exhausted right now, but I want to remind you, should you choose to continue, it will get easier."

A few of the girls mumbled something along the lines of "easy for you to say" or, "I wouldn't exactly call it a  _good_ first day" before Captain Miller continued.

"Behind me, as you can see, there is a board with twenty-five slots." he gestured to the board which had the word  **RANKINGS**  above it. "This is where you will be ranked from top of the program to bottom of the program. The board will be updated every evening so you can see where you stand, who's above you, and who's below you. Think of it as an incentive to push yourself harder. One thing I do wish to remind you is that even if you are ranked number one, it doesn't mean you will be moving on to train with the men. The best here in Tennessee could still easily be the worst in Georgia, and I'm not in the business of sending less than up-to-par soldiers out into combat." 

With that, Captain Miller bid the women good night, hoping to see each and every single one of them in the morning for day 2 of Camp Mirage's women's training program. As he took his leave, a pair of men stepped up to the board and began sliding cards with the names of the women into the ranking slots. 

Margot was more than pleased when she found herself at number three, behind two girls, Hannah Ginner and Lonnie Trent from Group A. She was sure her weapons skills had helped tremendously with her score and went happily back to eating moments later, the knowledge that there was still plenty of time to improve her ranking sitting comfortably with her.

Cathleen sat happily at fifth with Marion only two spots behind her at seventh. Francine was at tenth, Betty at thirteenth, Sandra at fifteenth, and Lena at twenty-third. 

Annie was disappointed, to say the least, when she found herself only four spots above Lena at nineteenth. She had thought, despite her struggles, that she had shown enough enthusiasm and drive to at least be in the top half of the program. What made her even angrier though was that girls like Sandra and Ethyl, who didn't even really want to be there, were still ranked above her. 

Furrowing her eyebrows in anger and disappointment, mainly at herself, Annie went back to eating and promised herself that she would do better the next day. 

●●●

By the next morning, just like Captain Miller had predicted, a decent handful of women had quit the program and boarded early buses back to their home states. Sandra Hughes, who had spent most of the night softly sobbing into her pillow, was to no one's surprise part of that handful. Along with her were three other girls from Group A and two others from Group C, leaving only nineteen left in total among the three groups. 

For the rest of the women who had decided to stay, however, the day went by just like the one before. The trainees in Group B woke up at six sharp to the loud hollering of Lieutenant Shaw before getting up, getting dressed, making their beds, and heading off to breakfast.

Maps and compass training went a lot smoother for Margot the second day, and by the end of the class, she fully believed that she was getting the hang of it. During the four-mile run, Annie managed to stay in the middle of the group the whole time and avoid falling behind altogether, even during the uphill parts. 

The obstacle course still proved a challenge for many women, but Lieutenant Shaw made sure they knew that they would not break for lunch until each and every one of them could complete the full course fifteen seconds faster than they had the day before. 

At twelve-thirty five the women of Group B cheered on Annie as she went through the course for her seventh time that day, her last run only being thirteen seconds faster. "You got this, Annie!" Marion called to the small girl as she swung over the moat. "Only two seconds faster!"

As Annie approached the final obstacle, the wall, she pushed off with all her might, her hands just barely grabbing onto the top and stopping her from falling back down. With a little help from her feet, the small girl from Connecticut managed to pull herself up and over the wall and complete the course.

Looking down at his stopwatch, Lieutenant Shaw's mouth curled into what might have passed for a smile. "Sixteen seconds faster than yesterday," he announced, causing the women to hoot and holler. "Break for lunch!"

●●●

By the end of the second day, taking into account the new scores and the women who had left, the rankings had changed. Margot had moved up to second, which she was thrilled about. "Only one more spot to overtake." she gloated shamelessly to her group as she peered at the first place trainee from group A, Lonnie Trent, out of the corner of her eye. 

Annie was also happy with her new ranking. Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she saw that she had climbed up seven whole spots to twelfth. "Good job, Annie." Margot congratulated her groupmate, still blown away by the sheer tenacity of the blonde girl. 

"Thanks," Annie smiled when she realized that that had been the first time Margot had spoken to her directly besides cheering her on during the obstacle course.  

The third and fourth days went by in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it, the ladies of Camp Mirage were waking up for their fifth and final day of training. The numbers had slowly dropped as more and more women quit and went home. Group B was down to Margot, Annie, Cathleen, Francine, and Marion, while Group A was down to four members, and Group C had only three left. 

Margot was still standing strong in second place, and even though she didn't know how much further ahead Lonnie from Group A was, she was sure they were neck and neck. Cathleen had managed to secure herself in the fourth place ranking overall, her progress staying more or less stagnant after the first two days. Marion had managed climbed two spots up to fifth, Cathleen's old position, and Francine was in seventh by the end of the fourth day.

The biggest, and most baffling, improvement in the whole program, however, was little Annie Winslow from Connecticut. On day one she was nineteenth, on day two she climbed up to twelfth, on day three she had secured ninth, and on day four, the most impressive jump of them all, she found herself sitting in third place, right behind Margot.

Overall, the ladies of Group B had the highest ranking trainees out of the twelve women total in the program. 

Margot was surprised just how fast she had managed to fall into a regular schedule and by the fifth morning, she found herself waking up five minutes before Lieutenant Shaw came barging through the billet door. 

The ladies jumped out of bed with ease, got ready, tidied up, and were heading down to breakfast an impressive two minutes later. Day five went off without a hitch; each and every single one of the women giving it their all from start to finish. 

Margot had gone from useless at map and compass reading to nothing less than proficient, Annie had managed to stay at the front for the entire duration of the four-mile run, and the total average time it took the women of Group B to finish the obstacle course was five minutes; a full minute faster than they had on day one. There had even been significant improvements in weapons training, and with the help of Margot and Lieutenant Shaw, each and every member of Group B knew their way around their gun and could fire with decent accuracy. 

All in all, the amount of progress Captain Miller saw among the women in the short five days they spent at Camp Mirage was nothing less than remarkable. That being said, he still wasn't sure if any of the ladies had what it took to train with the men in Georgia. 

●●● 

Tensions were high as the women of Camp Mirage sat down for dinner on their final day of training. Most were eager to see where they stood in the end, and while many knew they most likely wouldn't be moving on, the anxiety of finding out if  _anyone at all_  had made it through was thick in the air. 

Plates were left untouched as the women nervously chatted among themselves; eyes darting over to the entrance every few minutes to see if Captain Miller was walking in. 

"I think I passed Lonnie." Margot shifted beside Cathleen as her pupils fixed themselves on the ranking board. "You think I passed Lonnie?"

"I think you passed Lonnie," Annie assured her groupmate in an attempt to calm her, and her own, nerves. "You had a textbook performance today and I heard Lonnie's time on the obstacle course was down by ten seconds."

Francine widened her eyes at the blonde girl. "I think that's the most I've heard you talk this whole time."

The table broke out into a fit of laughter and some of the jitters melted away as a result. Just then, Captain Miller strode into the mess hall, his presence immediately bringing a hush over the room. Taking his spot at the front, he looked down at the papers in his hands, whispered something to the men beside him, and then turned to face the women.

"Well, this is it." he began; the women hanging onto his every word. "After five long days of training, I am proud to say that you women have shown outstanding improvement and have exceeded mine, and the Army's, expectations. I know you're all eager to see the final rankings and find out who, if anyone, will be shipping off to Georgia in the morning."

With a broad gesture to the board behind him, the men on either side of Lieutenant Miller began to change the names around. Margot watched with bated breath as one of the officers grabbed her name, and when he replaced Lonnie's name with her's at first place, she was sure she had stopped breathing. 

"Oh, thank god." Margot finally let out the breath she had been holding in. 

What confused the room, however, was when Lonnie was knocked down not to second place, but to third. Eyes shifted nervously as they waited to see who had managed to butt their way in between the long-standing battle between Margot and Lonnie. 

To everyone's surprise, and slight bewilderment, Annie's name slid into second place, dividing the two names the women had seen back-to-back for the entire five-day stay at Camp Mirage. Annie could hardly believe her eyes, and after staring blankly at the board for what felt like hours, she was shaken out of her trance by Francine. 

"Annie, you did it!" Francine smiled wide; her expression ten times happier than the blonde girl herself. "You went from nineteenth to second! Annie, that's incredible!"

Margot couldn't help but feel a sense of pride for her group when she caught Lonnie staring daggers their way. Finally admitting fully that she had been wrong about the small, blonde girl, Margot reached across the table and patted Annie on the shoulder. "I'm surprised you didn't pass me as well and snag first out from under all of us." 

Annie couldn't help but chuckle at that and before long the whole table was snickering. 

Clearing his throat loudly in order to regain the mess hall's attention, Captain Miller continued to address the room. "Now that we know the final standings, I would just like to say once again that I am proud of each and every one of you." he made a point to gesture to each of the three groups of women. "But I know you all just want me to stop blabbing and answer the burning question at hand, so here it is." 

The women watched as Captain Miller turned to the man on his left and took a folder out of his hand. "This women's training camp was held all over the United States of America with a total of four facilities throughout the country. Among those four camps, only this one has turned out the desired results as of now. Throughout the duration of this training camp, I have been in close contact with Colonel Sink of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. His division has been chosen to take on board the woman, if any, who will be serving as fully fledged soldiers for the United States Army. With great pride, I am happy to announce that two women have shown the drive, skill, intelligence, and mentality to be a soldier." 

The room broke out into small, quiet side conversations as Captain Miller pulled two paper bundles out of the folder in his hands. "These two women have shown me and every other person here that they want this more than anything. They worked hard in everything they did, took challenges head-on, were willing to learn new things, and strove to do better than they did the day before. I would like you all to join me in congratulating Margot Kessler and Antonia Winslow. Pack your bags, ladies. You're going to Camp Toccoa, Georgia."


	7. Camp Toccoa

With heaps of congratulations and wishes of luck, Margot and Annie boarded a bus the next morning that was set to take them to Camp Toccoa, Georgia. They were told that Colonel Sink would be awaiting their arrival and that he would help them get settled in personally before they began their two years of formal Army training with the best of the best. 

It had come to a jarring surprise to Margot and Annie that they would be joining a new division of the Army, the Parachute Infantry Regiment, which pretty much boiled down to jumping out of a moving airplane into enemy territory with everything you needed for survival strapped to your person. No matter how willing the two women were to trying new things, jumping out of an airplane was somewhere just over crossing a line for them; however, they had come this far and weren't about to give up now.

After a quiet two-hour bus ride of which Margot spent the majority of sleeping while Annie took the time to compose a long and complicated letter home to her family about the reality of what she had gotten herself into, the bus pulled into the camp they had heard so much about. 

Tucking her almost finished letter away into her bag, Annie gently woke Margot from her nap to inform her that they had arrived. Slowly beginning to stir, Margot opened her eyes and was taken aback by the sight that greeted her. Camp Toccoa was much larger than Camp Mirage had been — that was clear upon the first few seconds of seeing the place — and there were easily hundreds of men roaming around the grounds. For the first time in days, Margot felt a knot begin to form in her stomach. 

"I think it'll be okay," Annie said, sensing Margot's nerves and deciding to try and ease them. "If anything, we're ahead of the men; we've already been training for five days straight."

Margot swallowed hard when she spotted the obstacle course in the distance; longer, higher, and harder. "I'm pretty sure we're still gonna have our work cut out for us." she wished she possessed the cheerful way of looking at the world that Annie had. 

When Margot and Annie stepped off of the bus with their bags over their shoulders, they were immediately greeted by an older man with perfectly styled dark brown hair and a thin mustache above his upper lip. "You must be Margot Kessler and Antonia Winslow." the man moved forward to shake their hands. "I'm Colonel Sink, commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Divison." 

"That's a mouthful." the quip left Margot's mouth before she even had a chance to stop herself. 

Colonel Sink laughed heartily as he waved for them to follow him. "That it is." he lead the way through the camp. "I want you ladies to know that we are very thrilled to have you here with us. From what Captain Miller has told me, you two show exceptional potential to be one hell of a fine soldier. Now, I must warn you, not everyone is so open to the idea of women in the Army, as I am sure you are aware, but I do encourage you to speak to me directly if you feel you are being discriminated against in any way. There are no men and women here; only soldiers in training — and in your case, paratroopers." 

"About that," Annie's quiet voice forced Colonel Sink to move closer to her as they walked so he could hear her. "Will we really be...jumping out of airplanes?"

A sly smirk spread across Colonel Sink's lips. "What's the matter, Private? Scared of heights?"

"No!" Annie denied adamantly, worried a fear of heights would have her kicked out before she even began. "I was just wondering."

"Yes, Private Winslow, you will be jumping out of an airplane." he chuckled at the young girl's strong reaction to his joke before stopping in front of one of the many sleeping quarters for the men. "This is where you will be billeted. Unfortunately, we have no women's quarters, so you will be staying with men from your company. We did take the liberty of placing you two together though in hopes it would help you feel a bit more comfortable."

Margot nodded as she scanned over the front of the building with her eyes. "It will be fine, sir," she stated firmly. "We expect no special treatment whatsoever, isn't that right, Annie?"

With the taller girl and the Colonel both looking to her for an answer, Annie's mind went blank after being put on the spot and simply nodded. "Yes," she managed to squeak out. 

"Excellent." Colonel Sink clapped his hands together, the pleased smile on his face causing the wrinkles around his mouth to stretch. "Welcome to Easy Company, ladies." 

With that, the Colonel left the two women to their own devices and began to make his way back to his office. Sharing a look, the tall, raven-haired North Carolinian and small, blonde Connecticuter exchanged feelings of anxiety without even saying a word. 

"You think there will be men from our company in there?" Annie questioned, her eyes darting to the front door of the billet. 

Margot shrugged as she took the first few steps toward the entrance. "Probably, but we're going to have to meet them sooner or later." she reached for the door handle. "Might as well make it sooner."

Swinging the door open, the tall, toned woman was met with about six or seven pairs of eyes. Men inside there were, and each one looked just as shocked, if not more, than the last. "Hello." Margot flashed a smile before venturing inside and waving for Annie to follow suit. 

The men of Easy Company who had been simply putting their things away and making sure their area was tidy had been thrown for a loop when a woman entered their billet with a duffle bag in hand and a smile on her face. What shocked them, even more, was when a second woman, this one smaller than the first, followed the first one inside. What on Earth were women doing at a paratrooper training camp? 

Frank Perconte, the short Italian from Indiana, watched with wide eyes as the two females made their way to the unclaimed beds at the back of the billet and began unpacking their things.  _I must be dreaming_ he thought to himself, because he had been told the paratroopers were the best of the best, and there was no way a  _woman_  was the best of the best. 

Feeling the many pairs of eyes burning holes into the back of her head, Margot hastily finished placing her things into the footlocker at the end of her bed before turning to face the shocked and confused men who had been staring at her and Annie since they had walked in. "Where are my manners?" Margot laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood and ease the tension in the air. "I'm Margot Kessler and Charlotte, North Carolina is where I call home. That's Annie Winslow and she's from New Haven, Connecticut, right?"

"Ugh, right." Annie nodded, trying her best not to show how much the attention was making her feel uncomfortable.

"That's nice." one of the men finally decided to speak up; his brows knit together so tightly they could pass as a unibrow. "Why are you here?"

Margot heard the implication in the man's tone — the one that said she couldn't possibly be one of them — and folded her arms against her chest. "Same reason you are," she answered matter-of-factly. 

There were a few snorts of laughter, but for the most part, the men simply went back to what they were doing and ignored the women. 

Annie, who could see the frustration radiating off of the tall woman, placed a comforting hand on Margot's back and smiled sweetly. "They'll come around."

Word spread fast that there were women at Toccoa and as the two Camp Mirage transferees went about their day by getting organized, settled in, and familiar with the grounds, they were approached by group of men after group of men, all asking questions along the same lines.

The men of Easy Company, however, were more unimpressed than intrigued. Talking among themselves about how they were going to get killed by some 'dumb broad who thought playing pretend was fun', not all the comments stayed within their social circle, and before long the blatantly sexist remarks had may their way back to the two women. 

"So you're the girls who think they're going to be paratroopers." Donald Malarkey commented when he and his two comrades finally stumbled upon the women later that day. "Just do yourself a favour and give up the act now while you still have a sliver of dignity left."

The dig sent the man's friends, Warren Muck and Alex Penkala, into a fit of laughter that echoed through the camp long after the three had walked off and disappeared out of sight. 

Every joke, comment, remark, and jab that Margot heard from the enlisted men of Camp Toccoa that day drove the nail of anger deeper and deeper into her skin; and although Annie would say words of encouragement to cheer her up every so often, the blonde girl's optimistic personality was beginning to get on her nerves. How could she be so care-free and happy when pretty much all they had been subjected to since arriving was torment and ridicule?

Margot hated how easily the men's words got under her skin, but every time one of them expressed just how little they thought of her, she was reminded of her father. She was reminded of how even her own flesh and blood had believed her to be worthless at times. 

Annie, on the other hand, focused her energy on letting the comments run off of her like water off a duck's back. She believed whole-heartedly that once the men saw what she and Margot could do — once they saw that the two of them weren't useless — that they would ease up on the teasing. 

That night, after the two women had endured a dinner where the rest of the mess hall talked about them as if they weren't there, Margot and Annie tucked into bed alongside the very men who had been going out of their way to make them feel lesser. Of course, there were a few who had yet to make any snide remarks, but neither Margot nor Annie believed that meant that they wouldn't sometime in the near future. 

As Annie scribbled down the last few sentences of her letter home and tucked it away nicely folded inside of an envelope, she looked over at the sleeping Margot in the bed next to her and let out a soft sigh. "We'll be okay," she said to no one but herself before pulling the covers up over her shoulders and shutting her eyes.

●●● 

If Margot and Annie had thought the men of Easy Company had hated them, they were in for a rude awakening when it came to 1st Lieutenant Herbert Sobel, the man in charge of Easy Company. 

Lieutenant Sobel was a strict, angry, power-hungry man who enjoyed nothing more than mentally and physically pushing his Privates to the breaking point time after time; and when he caught wind that there would be women in  _his_  company, he knew that simply wouldn't do. In less than a week he believed he could have them packing up and heading home, so that's exactly what he set out to do. 

"You people are at the position of attention!" Lieutenant Sobel barked, scaring the men, and women, of Easy Company into standing up as straight as humanly possible. Passing by the platoon leaders, Lieutenants Richard Winters, and Lewis Nixon, Sobel's eyes moved from one private to the next like a predator stalking his prey. 

Stopping in front of the short Italian from Indiana, Sobel eyed Frank Perconte up and down, scanning for anything he could use against the man. "Private Perconte, have you been blousing your pants over your boots like a paratrooper?" he asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear the man try and explain himself. 

"No, sir," Frank answered, his eyes trained straight ahead.

"Then explain the creases at the bottom."

"No excuse, sir."

Sobel looked down at the man, both literally and figuratively. "Volunteering for the parachute infantry is one thing, Perconte, but you've got a long way to prove that you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked."

As Sobel moved on to the next man he was going to chew out, he locked eyes with the women who stood in the middle of the group, silently promising that he would get to them eventually. "Name?" he demanded from the next poor victim.

"Luz, George." the man in question handed over his rifle as Sobel reached for it. 

Inspecting the rifle carefully, the ruthless CO found something not up to his standards in a matter of seconds and tossed the weapon back. "Dirt in the rear side aperture. Pass revoked."

By then both Margot and Annie had gathered that this man was a pro at finding things to bitch about, so they knew he was going to have a hay day with them. Just as expected, the tall CO stepped in front of the first of the two girls, his eyes already searching for mistakes.

"Name?" he demanded, his voice louder than it had been with the men.

"Winslow, Antonia." Annie tried to keep her mind calm as she focused on the trees in the distance and how the branches swayed calmly with the breeze. 

Sobel scoffed. "When I first heard there were women in my company I didn't believe it, but now that you're here, standing in front of me, I really do wonder what Captain Miller was thinking when he proposed this little 'experiment'. You are by far the most pathetic looking excuse for a soldier I have seen in all my life, Private Winslow. Do you really think you can be a paratrooper?"

"Yes, sir, I do," Annie responded, hoping he couldn't hear her heart pounding against her ribcage. 

"And what about you, Private..." Sobel turned to Margot and glanced at the nametag on her uniform, "...Kessler? Do you think you can be a paratrooper?"

"Yes, sir, I do," Margot repeated the same answer Annie had given. 

Turning and making his way through the rows of men towards the front, Sobel let out an airy laugh. "You hear that, men? These women think they can measure up to you. I bet they even believe they're  _better_  than some of you. I, for one, think they simply got lost on the way to the grocery store."

The comment made by the company's Commanding Officer caused a few of the men to snicker, and instead of berating them for breaking silence, Sobel only smirked. He was actively trying to turn the men against Margot and Annie, and so far, it was working. 

"Private Winslow, Private Kessler, both of you are wearing ill-fitting uniforms." he finished on a more serious note. "Passes revoked."

Margot gritted her teeth, knowing the CO knew full well that there were no women's uniforms available and that they were wearing the best-fitting men's ones they could find. Moving on, Sobel revoked another pass from Sergeant Carwood Lipton for having a loose thread on his uniform's chevrons and another from Private Donald Malarkey for having rust on his rifle's butt plate hinge spring. 

After stating that Malarkey was slang for bullshit, Sobel moved over to his final victim of the day. "Name?"

"Liebgott, Joseph D, sir." the man standing directly in front of Margot answered.

"Rusty bayonet, Liebgot." Sobel pulled the blade from the sheath attached to the Private's uniform. "You wanna kill Germans?"

"Yes, sir."

Sobel smacked the bayonet against Liebgott's helmet. "Not with this." he scolded before walking to the front of the group where everyone could see him. "I would not take this rusty piece of shit to war, and I will not take you to war in your condition." he threw the bayonet down beside himself, lodging the blade firmly into the lawn. "Now thanks to these men... _and women_...and their infractions, every man in the company who had a weekend pass, has lost it. Change into your PT gear, we're running Currahee."

As Sobel stalked off, Lieutenant Winters spun around to face the rest of the group. "2nd Platoon fall out. You have two minutes."

Inside the billet, the members of Easy Company wasted no time shedding their layers of ODs to reveal their running shirts and shorts; the disappointment of losing their weekend passes looming over each and every man. Margot and Annie, on the other hand, could frankly care less. They had bigger problems on their hands.

"I ain't going up that hill," Perconte said as he sat down on the end of his bed. 

Hearing the door slam open, a few heads turned as one of the other men, John Martin, stormed into the room. "Hey, Perconte, what are you thinking of, blousin' your pants?" he eyed the sitting man as he walked past.

"Shut up, Martin, alright? He gigged everybody." Perconte huffed, his Italian accent growing thicker with his frustration.

"Yeah, well you should know better." Martin had zero sympathy for his fellow Private. "Don't give him no excuses."

Jumping to his feet, Perconte turned and pointed directly at the two women who were minding their own business at the back of the room. "What about them? You ain't chewing them out for wearing the wrong uniforms."

"There are no women's ODs available," Margot told the irate man quite simply. 

"Wonder why that is?" the Italian snapped. "Maybe because there ain't supposed to be no women in the Army!"

A few of the men froze in place at the sudden outburst. Taking a second to let the anger fade away, Margot addressed the man once more. "You want me to wear a proper fitting uniform? No problem," she said as if there was a simple solution to the matter at hand. "You have a small, feminine figure. Give me yours." 

The man blinked back at Margot as the room broke out into a series of chuckles. Before either party could say another word, Sergeant Lipton entered the billet. "Alright, let's go, on the road in PT formation," he ordered the few who were still inside. "Let's move, move, move!"

Tapping Margot on the shoulder, Annie got the taller girl's attention and the two headed out with the rest of the men. 

Mount Currahee, when viewed from a distance, was a beautiful mountain that stood peacefully in the background of Camp Toccoa. However, Mount Currahee, when viewed from the long winding path as a sadistic CO yells at the top of his lungs, was a less than desirable experience. 

"Where do we run?" Sobel bellowed, jogging alongside the three platoons of Easy Company as they made their way up the winding gravel path of Mount Currahee. 

"Currahee!" the company answered as one. 

"And what does 'Currahee' mean?" Sobel followed up.

"We stand alone!"

"How far up, how far down?"

"Three miles up, three miles down!"

"And what company is this?"

"Easy Company!"

"And what do we do?"

"Stand alone!"

As the group rounded a corner, one of the men, Warren Muck, tripped over his own feet. As the men on either side of him reached out to lend a hand, Sobel yelled at them. "Do not help that man!" he growled. "We do not stop."

Running beside each other, Margot and Annie fought hard to keep up with the others. The men's paces were faster than theirs, the run was two miles longer than their ones at Camp Mirage had been, and the first half was all uphill. 

Margot wanted to ask Annie a few times how she was holding up, but every time she opened her mouth, Sobel was right there, yelling at her to "Shut up and keep running!" So, Margot kept her mouth shut and eventually ended up moving ahead with some of the other men, leaving Annie at the back of the pack.

"You've got thirty minutes to get to the top of this mountain if you wanna serve in the paratroopers!" Sobel warned as he sped up, leaving the company behind. "Hi-ho, silver!" his voice echoed down the mountain path. 

Placing one foot in front of the other, Margot pushed through the pain in her legs and persevered towards the top of the mountain. She caught the few glances she got as she passed some of the men, but most of her energy was being used to keep her going, so she paid the looks no mind. 

Lieutenant Winters, who was the first to reach the top of the mountain and tag the stone monument that sat there, passed by Sobel and his stopwatch before shouting encouragements at the rest of the company. 

"We are coming on twenty-three minutes!" Sobel announced as Margot reached the top along with Frank Perconte, George Luz, and Denver "Bull" Randleman, a large and intimidating man from Arkansas. "That may be good enough for the rest of the 506, but that is  _not_  good enough for Easy Company!"

On her way back down the mountain, Margot passed by Annie and shot her an encouraging smile. She could see on the small girl's face that she was in pain, but she knew there was nothing she could do to help, so she turned her attention back to the path in front of her and revealed in the feeling of going down the mountain instead of up. 

By the time Annie had made it back to camp with the final few men, Margot's breathing was already back to normal and the beads of sweat had been wiped from her skin. It was at that moment that the blonde girl actually wished the runs at Camp Mirage had been longer and harder. She wished she had been more prepared because she hated the fact that she was struggling this much in front of a company of men who already had such low opinions of her. 

Then, as Annie stood on the sidelines and fought to catch her breath again, she saw something that made her do a double take. There, clear as day, Margot was engaging in friendly banter with Frank Perconte. The man wasn't teasing her or putter her down to the extremes he had been before. No, he was poking fun at her like he would any of the other guys. 

The fact that Margot had beat Frank up and down Currahee had impressed him enough that he had decided to give her the kudos she deserved with the retort about his small figure earlier. Frank was still firmly set in his belief that there was no way a woman could be a paratrooper, but he figured if he was going to be stuck with a woman for a while, better it be one who could dish it out just as good as she received.

In an unexpected turn of events, Annie suddenly found herself seemingly on her own. Margot could actually hold her own among the men, and they were beginning to see that as well.


	8. Drive and Determination

As the days turned into weeks at Camp Toccoa, Lieutenant Sobel was growing more disgruntled by the second. Not only had his plan to have both Margot and Annie gone from his company in no less than a week failed, but he was also beginning to see a shift in the way his men interacted with the females altogether. Despite his many attempts at turning the men against the women, some of the Privates had begun to blur the distinct line he had drawn between the two genders; especially when it came to Private Kessler.

Sobel could pretty much see the wall of indifference slowly crumbling behind the eyes of Annie Winslow every time he yelled at her, told her she would never make it, and revoked her pass for little things like a loose hair in her bun or a wrinkle in her uniform. Margot Kessler, however, was a different story altogether and was slowly proving to be more of a challenge than the Easy Company CO had originally thought. 

While little Annie's knees buckled under the pressure, Margot strived because of it. Every time Sobel upped the ante and demanded a faster time for the Currahee run, Margot completed the task with ease, often being one of the first to make it back to camp. When he asked the company to run Curahee in full uniform, rifles in hand, the girl cracked jokes for the full three miles up and three miles down. He even tried to scare her off by convincing the higher-ups she would make a good machine-gunner, hoping the physically demanding assignment would send her packing. No such luck. The determined girl ran at the challenge head-on and actually, to his utter disbelief, seemed to  _enjoy_  it. 

Sobel wasn't the only one to take note of the tall North Carolinian's raw determination. Lieutenants Winters and Nixon also, on more than one occasion, found themselves baffled by the girl's ability to keep up with the men. They promptly passed their thoughts onto Colonel Sink, who was pleased as punch to hear one of his female trainees was exceeding expectations. The things he heard about the second, smaller girl, however, left him feeling less than satisfied.

Every day when Annie woke up, she told herself she would do better; and while it was true that the blonde girl was slowly improving, the progress just wasn't fast enough for the likes of a paratrooper. While the young woman from New Haven worked her ass off each and every day, she had no clue there were talks of cutting her from the program. 

●●● 

It was pitch black outside, and even though Margot knew it was late, she wasn't sure of the exact time. For the past hour or so, she and the rest of Easy company had been marching in full gear down a gravel path while the rest of the Toccoa companies enjoyed their Friday night off. 

Everyone in the company knew the twelve-mile march was just another way for Sobel to weed out the weak and altogether knock Easy Company down another peg or two, but no one said a word; no one until Bull Randleman had decided enough was enough.

"I'm gonna say something." Bull, who was a row ahead of Margot and two behind Annie, stated in a low whisper. 

George Luz, who was much shorter than the tall, large man from Arkansas, scoffed. "To who?"

"Lieutenant Winters," Bull called out loud enough for every member of all three platoons of Easy Company to hear.

Recognizing the voice, Winters didn't even bother to turn around as he continued walking. "What is it?"

"Permission to speak, sir?"

"Permission granted."

Bull paused for a moment, fully aware of the eyes that were watching him like a hawk from left, right, and behind, everyone waiting to hear what he was going to say. "Sir, we got nine companies, sir."

"That we do."

"Well, how come we're the only company marching every Friday night, twelve miles, full pack, in the pitch dark?"

Winters sighed slightly. He knew the men were being pushed to the limit each and every day, and while he vehemently disagreed with the way Sobel ran the company, he also knew it wasn't his place to question the decisions of his CO. "Why do you think, Private Randleman?" he finally asked.

"Lieutenant Sobel hates us, sir," Bull spoke out loud the words every member of Easy Company had been thinking since day one. 

Slowing his pace, Winters shook his head. "Lieutenant Sobel does not hate Easy Company, Private Randleman." Winters pretty much completely lied before deciding to ease the tension with a light-hearted quip. "He just hates you."

"Thank you, sir." Bull took the comment as the friendly ribbing it was as the company broke out into small fits of laughter. 

Annie, for the first time in what she thought must have been days, felt a smile creep onto her lips. Hearing the belly laugh from the man next to her, William "Bill" Guarnere, she too let a chuckle escape her mouth. 

For the next ten minutes, the men laughed happily here and there as they told one another just how much Lieutenant Sobel hated them. "You know who he hates the most?" Malarkey asked the question before answering it himself. "Margot."

Good-natured laughs escaped Easy Company, Margot herself even joining in. "I swear, I think he glared at her for two minutes straight yesterday." Floyd Talbert, the rather handsome man from Kokomo, Indiana, commented. "He didn't even blink."

"One minute, thirty-seven seconds," Margot announced proudly as if it were an achievement. "I counted."

"No, no, no." Joseph Toye, who marched beside Margot, disagreed with the conclusion. "He definitely hates Annie the most. Every time he sees her he looks like he wants to throw himself off the nearest building."

Before long, what was once friendly teasing back and forth between all of the men, had quickly turned into the entire company, save Margot, recalling and laughing about all the times little Annie had messed up and made Sobel snap. 

The men continued to chuckle at the expense of the small, blonde girl for the remaining duration of the march, only stopping when they finally made it back to camp. Annie felt her cheeks flush and tears well up in her brown eyes every time another one of her infractions or mistakes was brought up; and if it weren't for the complete lack of light outside at that time that hid her face away in the shadows, she was sure they would have also made fun of her for being so emotional. 

Annie wasn't exactly sure why the men treated her so much worse than Margot, but what she  _did_  know was that she and the raven-haired woman were no longer a team. It wasn't the men versus the women anymore, it was everyone versus her. 

Another thing Annie didn't know was that the girl three rows behind did, in fact, feel guilt and sympathy for her. Margot wanted to tell Annie that everything would be okay and that she would find her footing eventually, but she worried that it would jeopardize her growing friendships with the men. She had worked hard to get into their good graces and wasn't sure if she was ready to start from scratch all over again. 

With the march completed, Easy Company lined up in even rows and awaited Sobel's unavoidable rant. "Lieutenant Winters, I want canteens out of belts with the caps unscrewed." the CO told Winters, who in turn relayed the instructions to the men and women. 

"On my command, they will pour the contents onto the ground." Sobel continued as every member of the company grabbed their canteens from their belts and unscrewed the caps. "Now, Lieutenant."

On the command, the rows of Easy Company trainees upended their canteens, letting the water spill out and splash onto the ground around their feet. Eyes peeled for infractions, Lieutenant Sobel caught what he was watching for and jumped at the opportunity to yell at yet another Private. 

"Who is this?" Sobel barked as he stomped through the rows toward a man at the back who's canteen had been only half full. "Christenson." Sobel read the man's nametag; still not giving enough of a damn to learn the names of half of his company. "Why is there no water in your canteen? You drank from your canteen, didn't you?"

"Sir, I-" the Private began to explain.

"Lieutenant Winters," Sobel called.

Winters stood stiff as a board. "Yes, sir."

"Was this man ordered to not drink from his canteen during the Friday night march?"

"He was, sir."

Sobel's eyes didn't leave the man in front of him for a second. "Private Christenson, you have disobeyed a direct order. You will fill your canteen and repeat all twelve miles of the march immediately." 

"Yes, sir." Private Christenson's somewhat confident facade hid the feeling of pure defeat as he turned and walked off to start the twelve-mile march all over again. 

Stalking back to the front of the company, Sobel motioned for Winters to follow him and the two men moved a few feet away from the rest of the men. "What in the name of God are you doing with my company?" Sobel asked, his voice still loud enough for Margot to hear what he was saying clear as day. "You're late and you allow troopers to disobey direct orders?"

"No excuse, sir." Winters retained a composed demeanor.

"You're making me look bad, Lieutenant. This is not Dog Company. This is not Fox Company. This, this is Easy Company. And under my command, this will be the first and finest company in this regiment." Sobel declared before finally lowering his voice and saying something that only Winters could hear. 

With the order to find six infractions and assign the guilty parties disciplinary actions, Lieutenant Winters watched as Sobel walked off and disappeared into the night. 

●●● 

The next morning, while Winters listed off to Nixon the names of the six men he assigned latrine duty to — for no other reason than it was their turns — Annie had just walked into the mess hall to grab some breakfast. The physically and mentally exhausted girl didn't even attempt to identify what was on her plate, and once she had her food, her eyes scanned the hall. She hoped to see Margot sitting alone somewhere so she could eat her breakfast with some company without fear of being ridiculed, but no such luck.

Margot was sitting at a table full of men, deep in conversation with Walter "Smokey" Gordon, who had been assigned her machine-gunner teammate. At first, the man with the chewing tobacco habit — hence the nickname 'Smokey' — was anything but pleased to find out his war partner was a woman; however, after the two had actually worked together a few times, he slowly began to realize that maybe the green-eyed, black-haired woman wasn't as incapable as he had originally thought. 

Annie, who was once again subjected to eating alone, sat down at an empty table at the back of the room and lazily pushed her breakfast around with her fork. Not only had she not been welcomed as easily as Margot had, but she was also still one of the only few who hadn't received an assigned position yet. Margot and Smokey were machine-gunners, Eugene Roe, a quiet and kind half Cajun man from Louisianna, had been made a medic, George Luz was a radioman, and the likes of Guarnere, Malarkey, and Muck were mortarmen. 

Annie had even gone to Colonel Sink personally to ask about a placement, but she was simply turned away and told that when they knew where to put her, she would be among the first to find out. 

With her self-confidence diminishing rapidly and her determination being chipped away at day by day, the small girl really didn't know how much longer she could take being treated as if she didn't even exist. Maybe her performance at Camp Mirage had been nothing more than a fluke; a bout of good luck. Maybe Sobel was right. Maybe she  _didn't_ have what it took to be a paratrooper.


	9. The Wall

It didn't take long for word to spread outside the confines of Camp Toccoa that there were women in the Army. As predicted, the consensus on the matter was more or less split down the middle; some thought the idea of women in the Army was a blatant disservice to the United States of America, while others believed it was about time women were allowed to work the same jobs as men. 

Thankfully, due to being tucked away at Toccoa with their days completely filled up, Margot and Annie had little free time to read the things being written about them in the papers; not that they would even  _if_ they had the chance. 

With no contact with her father, Margot was spared the opinions about herself from anyone outside of the camp. Annie, however, wasn't so lucky. Ever since sending the letter to her family about what she was really doing in Georgia, she received personal letters from pretty much every member of her family, immediate and extended. She even received a letter from her boyfriend Steve, and to put it simply, he was none too impressed with her 'man-hating, feministic-fueled stunt.' She had never had Steve speak to her like that before. 

While most of her family had indeed tried to come across as supportive, Annie could see the subtle implications in their words when they told her to 'think carefully about what she was doing', 'remember how dangerous war was', and 'be careful around the men.'

Annie only responded to a few of the letters before deciding that she had enough to deal with during her training as it was and didn't need to be put down by her family as well. 

●●● 

With the bulk of the physical tests now upon the men and women of Easy Company, the paratroopers in training endured daily activities such as jump training and an obstacle course that put the one at Camp Mirage to shame.

Following Sobel's orders, Margot stood in the doorway of the makeshift, wooden plane before jumping down the meter or so to the ground. With legs straight, she only let her feet touch the grass for a split second before flopping onto her back in order to avoid breaking any bones when it came to the real deal.

"Next." Sobel nodded as Margot moved to the sidelines to watch the remaining Easy members complete their jump.

Falling into line between Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere, Margot watched with a great deal of amusement and worry as Walter Gordon threw himself out of the fake airplane, his limbs flailing before he smacked into the lawn. As Sobel pointed out the fact that he had done literally everything wrong, Margot let out a sigh. 

"Great, my partner just broke both his legs." she glared at Gordon as he moved to join her and the others. "Smokey, I am not carrying your ass into Nazi-occupied land because you decided to throw yourself out of the plane like a sack of wet laundry. I am warning you now, I will loot your body and leave you for dead if you pull that shit on D-day." 

"That's comforting." Smokey couldn't help but laugh along with the others. "Good thing I'm the one carrying the Browning, then."

Margot cocked a brow at the man, a sly smirk appearing on her face. "Yeah, and I've got the ammo. What you gonna shoot with no ammo?"

"How you gonna shoot with no gun?" he retorted. 

Margot narrowed her eyes at her machine-gunner partner. "Touche," she admitted. 

Next up on the schedule for the day was the dreaded obstacle course. Everyone from the large Bull Randleman to the small Annie Winslow despised having to complete the course, and from the moment you began, you wished it was over. 

Hearing the whistle loud in her right ear, Annie folded her arms above her head as she high-stepped through the large rope squares. She tripped once in the middle and then once again at the end before sprinting to the wooden chutes that she crawled through and somersaulted out of. 

Next was the wall that stood a good quarter-meter higher than the one at Camp Mirage, and although she tried her darndest to get up and over that damn thing, Annie finally had to take Winters' advice and go around when Sobel wasn't looking. 

And just when Easy Company didn't think it could get any worse, they were forced to crawl under barbed wire, through mud and pig guts, in full gear, with their rifles in hand. 

When the last training exercise had come to an end and the men and women of Easy Company believed they were done for the day, Sobel informed them that he had other plans. Ushering the company back over to the obstacle course, Sobel had them line up before speaking. "Private Winslow, please step forward," he ordered.

Swallowing hard, Annie stepped forward out of line as she was told. She had no idea what was about to happen, but she did know that whatever it was, she was not going to like it. 

"Private Winslow believes she can get away with slacking off around here." Sobel stood still with his arms behind his back. "She thinks she can go ahead and skip the wall in the obstacle course because it's hard. But here in Easy Company, we do not simply give up because something is hard, do we?"

"No, sir." the company answered together. Winters felt a tinge of guilt run through him, knowing full well it was he who had allowed the girl to go around the wall instead of over it. 

Sobel turned and gestured to the obstacle course. "Thanks to Private Winslow's laziness, we will all wait here until she completes the obstacle course completely, from start to finish. Every time she fails to climb up and over the wall, she will start again from the beginning. Winslow, go to the start of the course."

With her head hung low, Annie avoided eye contact with her company as she moved to the ropes, which signified the beginning of the course. Reaching for his whistle, Sobel brought the metal object towards his mouth, but before he blew it, he paused. "Oh, and one more thing," he added, turning back to the rest of the company. "If you all thought you were going to stand there idly and watch, you are mistaken. This is a company. When one of you fails, you all fail! Each and every one of you will drop and do push-ups until Private Winslow completes the course."

There were quiet groans from quite a few of the men, but when Sobel blew the whistle, every last one of them dropped and began doing push-ups without so much as an out of place breath. 

Annie's heart pounded hard against her chest as she high-stepped through the ropes. Managing to avoid tripping, she moved on to the wooden chutes. Standing up after the somersault, Annie eyed the intimidating wall in front of her. She ran as fast as she could and jumped as high as she could manage, but her hands were still inches away from the top and she fell back down to the ground. 

"Again!" Sobel blew into his whistle, his eyes scanning the rows of Easy Company to make sure no one was slacking with their push-ups.

Annie went through the course over and over. Ropes, chute, wall, fall, start again. By the fourth time, the men of Easy were beginning to voice their frustration and exhaustion. "Just climb the damn wall!" Alex Penkala groaned. 

While half of the company began berating the girl, others like Winters, Martin, Margot, and Lipton stayed silent. They felt bad for the girl; it wasn't her fault she was too small to reach the top of the wall. 

"Move it, Winslow!" Sobel screamed at the girl as she jogged past him on her way to restart the course for the fifth time. "Look at Private Kessler, Winslow! Look how tired she is! You're letting down your fellow woman! You're letting down your fellow women all over the country!"

That comment was the straw that broke the camel's back for Margot. With shaking arms as she lowered herself down for yet another push-up, she called out loud enough for the entire camp to hear: "You can do it, Annie! We believe in you!" 

The men didn't exactly join in, in offering the small blonde words of encouragement but after the outburst from Margot, they did stop yelling insults and other negative things at the poor girl. "She's not going to be able to climb the wall when she's worried about how much she's letting us down." Margot snapped at the men around her. "Cheer her on and she'll make it. Trust me."

As Annie's feet stepped over the last rope, she heard something that made her do a double-take. Instead of being yelled at by the men of the company she was...being cheered on?

"You can do it!" Winters was the first to voice his encouragement. 

"Yeah!" Luz panted, his arms weak. "Show that wall who's boss!"

Before long the entire company was shouting words of positivity, eyes watching carefully as Annie approached the wall for the fifth, and hopefully final, time.

Drawing in a deep breath, Annie ran as fast as she could — so fast that many of the men thought she was going to run right into the wall. Then, at the last moment, she pushed off the ground with all of her might. The small girl sprung upwards, and finally, her hands grabbed onto the top of the wall. 

The company let out a series of cheers as the girl used her legs to climb the rest of the way up to the top. With adrenaline coursing through her like crazy, Annie jumped down from the wall and completed the rest of the course without a single mistake. When the blonde girl finally crossed the finish line, the rows of Easy Company flopped down onto their stomachs, their arms sore and breathing heavy. 

"Hell yeah!" Annie shouted for everyone to hear as she turned and faced the wall again; promptly flipping it off with a smile wider than anyone had ever seen before. 

Standing up as the men let out airy laughs at the blonde girl's excitement, Margot walked over to Annie and hugged her tight. "I knew you could do it," she told the smaller girl, her chin resting on the top of Annie's head. "You just have to believe in yourself."

Annie smiled as she was released from the comforting hug. Glancing past Margot at the group of men who were flashing her a thumbs-up and praising her for her performance, she sighed. "It also helps when other people believe in you, too." 

●●● 

With the following days, Annie's performance improved so drastically that Colonel Sink had thought for a brief moment that he had been receiving doctored reports. Just like at Camp Mirage, the small blonde blew everyone away with just how fast she could excel when she believed in herself.

After seeing for himself that the young woman was beginning to hold her own among the men, Colonel Sink pushed the thought of dropping the girl from the program out of his head completely and began thinking about which position to assign her. With the helpful advice of Richard Winters and Lewis Nixon, and not so helpful advice from Herbert Sobel, he quickly ruled out the more physically demanding jobs seeing as no matter how hard Annie worked, she couldn't change the fact that she was, and would always be, small.

Allowing himself a few more days of contemplation, Colonel Sink finally decided to send Private Winslow to train with the medics for a day and see how she fared. The results were nothing less than promising. 

Annie, unlike all the other training exercises at Camp Toccoa, picked up on the basics of being a medic in no time at all. The girl was surprisingly calm under that sort of pressure — the pressure of having someone else's life depending on you — she was quick with her hands, and she was good at problem-solving. 

The other Easy Medics, Eugene Roe and Ralph Spina, vouched for the girl after her day with them, stating that they believed she would make an excellent medic. So, with his mind firmly made up, Colonel Sink assigned the girl as a medic, which she was ecstatic about. 

As for the rest of Easy Company, the men slowly began to ease off on teasing Annie, and when they often found the two women together, they would invite them both to join their table at mealtimes or group when playing a round of cards. 

Somehow, Sobel had been promoted to Captain, which was a decision that no one could really fully comprehend; but Winters had also been promoted to 1st Lieutenant, so not all hope was lost. 

All in all, things were looking up for the women — more specifically, Annie — of Easy Company.


	10. Jump Wings

With Lieutenant Winters' promotion, Captain Sobel had decided to make the red-haired man mess officer for two weeks, effectively putting him in charge of everything the men and women of the company ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  

Originally, it didn't seem as though this change would really affect the day-to-day workings of the camp, but when Margot, Annie, and the men saw that spaghetti was on the menu for lunch one day, they were over the moon. It had been weeks since they had eaten something with a real name. 

Since it was supposed to rain and the company had a light afternoon of lecture and classroom instruction due to all the training exercises being cancelled, Winters had thought nothing about the fact that Sobel had suggested a special meal for Easy Company. He assumed that the man, for once in his life, had decided to take it easy on the trainees. Oh, how wrong he was. 

With a plate piled high with spaghetti, or what was supposed to be spaghetti, Margot took a seat at the end of the table next to Joe Liebgott. Looking around her at the men who were practically shoveling the food into their mouths, she chuckled slightly before digging into her own lunch.

Annie, however, was too excited to be a part of the group to even  _think_  about eating. Listening intently to every little thing the men around her said, she enjoyed the fact that they weren't picking on her. 

"This stuff is orange." one of the men that neither Margot nor Annie knew very well spoke up; the noddles dangling from his fork as he inspected them. "Spaghetti ain't supposed to be orange."

"This ain't spaghetti," Perconte said with a mouth full of the food. "This is army noodles with ketchup."

Margot, who had nearly packed away half of her serving, turned to him. "Still better than that grey slop they gave us last week."

"She's right." Guarnere agreed with the tall girl as he sat down beside Frank. "You ain't gotta eat it."

"Oh, come on, Gonorrhea," Perconte used the less-than-flattering nickname for his friend. "As a fellow Italian, you should know that calling this crap spaghetti is a mortal sin."

As the prideful Italian finished his spiel, a hand appeared over his shoulder and began grabbing for his plate. "You don't want it, I'll have it." the voice that belonged to the hand stated.

Gripping his plate hard with two hands as if he were going to starve if he didn't eat the food in front of him, Perconte used his shoulder to push the other man away. "No, no, no, I'm eating here."

Margot was just about to ask Perconte about where he thought served the best spaghetti, but before she could even part her lips to form a word, a loud, shrill whistle sounded through the mess hall. "Orders changed, get up!" Sobel stomped down the middle aisle between the two rows of tables as the company rose to their feet. "Lectures are cancelled. Easy Company is running up Currahee. Move, move!"

Looking down at her empty plate, Margot already began to feel uneasy. "Three miles up, three miles down!" Sobel shouted at the top of his lungs. "Hi-ho, silver!"

This was going to be a disaster. 

●●● 

Just as predicted, the Currahee run was a disgusting affair, and the company hadn't even made it halfway to the top yet. With orange stains on the fronts of their white PT shirts, many men had started throwing back up the lunch they hadn't even had the time to digest yet. 

"You're a washout, Private Hoobler!" Sobel called to the man who had just finished puking. "You should pack up those ears and go home!"

One by one, Sobel made his way through the company, shouting insults at anyone who looked even the least bit sick to their stomachs. "Private Randleman, you look tired," Sobel commented as he jogged happily along beside the larger man. "There's an ambulance waiting for you at the bottom of the hill. It can all be over right now. No more pain, no more Currahee. No more Captain Sobel."

Deciding to take the men's minds off of the pure misery they were all currently enduring, Luz decided to start a chant, which the rest of the company joined in with not long after. 

_"We fall upon the risers, we fall upon the grass, we never land upon our feet, we always hit our ass. Hiedy, diety, Christ Almighty, who the hell are we, zim-zam, goddamn, we're airborne infantry."_

As the song made its way back to the beginning for another round, Margot opened her mouth to join in, hoping the song would do the trick of subsiding her nausea. Before she could even get the first word out, however, she felt the heavy noodles in her stomach shift and immediately knew she was done for. 

Pushing her way past the men and over to the grass, the pale, sick woman spewed her lunch all over the side of the path, her face flushing with embarrassment as the men gave her sympathetic glances. 

"Private Kessler." Sobel didn't miss the woman who was doubled over on the side of the path. "Did I say you could stop running?"

"I'm sorry, sir." Margot managed to squeak out before she began to wretch again. 

Staring down at the woman, Sobel only shook his head at her. "Private Kessler, if you're not at the front of the pack in two minutes you can forget about being a paratrooper."

As the sadistic Captain jogged off, Margot felt another bout of nausea wash over her. Annie, who was just passing the poor woman, flashed her a small smile before continuing on her way. With being too caught up in listening to the conversations around her during lunch to eat, Annie was the only one in the whole company, save Lieutenant Winters, who didn't feel sick at all. 

Knowing that she couldn't let a little vomit bring her down when she had already come so far, Margot did the only thing she could think of. Taking her index and middle fingers, she shoved the digits down her throat far enough to make herself gag. The raven-haired girl repeated that action over and over again until she was sure she had thrown up everything in her stomach. 

Feeling empty and no longer nauseous, she then jumped to her feet, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and sprinted to the front of the pack like Sobel had told her to do. 

As Margot ran past Sobel and joined in singing with the rest of the men, the Easy Company Captain could hardly believe his eyes. How on Earth was that girl still around after everything he had thrown at her? 

●●● 

Bright and early and in full gear, the members of Easy Company gathered around to hear the instructions that would come before their first real jumps out of an airplane. Margot and Annie were nervous, to say the least. They each only had one reservation about being a paratrooper, and that reservation was jumping out of a goddamn moving airplane. 

"So, do we feel like we're ready to be Army Paratroopers?" the man in front of the sitting company asked.

"Yes, Sergeant." Easy Company chorused.

The man, who had set up a few easels with diagrams outside in front of the obstacle course, smiled. "I hope so. This will be the first of five exits from a C-47 aircraft scheduled for today. Upon successful completion of your fifth and final jump, you'll be certified Army Paratroopers. There'll be a lot of men... _and women._..dropping from the sky today. Hopefully, under deployed canopies. Jumping from 1000 feet AGL, in sticks of twelve jumpers per aircraft. All you have to do is remember what you were taught, and I guarantee you gravity will take care of the rest. And rest assured, any refusals in the aircraft or at the door...and I guarantee you, you will be out of the airborne." 

Annie swallowed hard and looked over at Margot who was facing straight ahead, her tongue sticking ever so slightly out of her mouth as she hung on to the Sergeant's every word. This was it. Make or break.

Before they knew it, the two women of Easy Company were up in the air inside of the previously mentioned C-47. The aircraft was one of the loudest things either of the women had ever heard before, but Annie was grateful for the noise as it drowned out her own thoughts of worry. 

Tapping Margot on the shoulder to get her attention, the small blonde leaned in as close as she could in order to be heard over the rumbling of the engine. "If it looks like I'm going to refuse at the door, I need you to yell at me until I jump."

Confusion on her face, Margot looked down at her friend. "Yell at you?"

"Yes." Annie nodded. "Yell at me, call me names, push me, I don't care! Just make sure I jump out of this damn airplane. I can't go home now. I'm so close!"

"Okay." Margot agreed for the sake of the small girl's peace of mind. "But you won't need me to. You're gonna be great!"

Seconds later, the jump instructor yelled for the twelve Easy Company members to stand to their feet and hook themselves onto the main cable that stretched down the middle of the aircraft. Doing as they were told, the women fell into line among the men and awaited further instructions.

After checking equipment for both themselves and the person in front of them, and sounding off for equipment check — which consisted of each person calling out down the line that they were good-to-go — the only thing left for the men and women to do was jump. 

When the green light beside the open door flashed and the jump instructor yelled that it was safe to go, the first man jumped out without hesitation. Slowly, one by one, the aircraft was emptying out. 

Watching with wide eyes as the man in front of her leapt out of the door and into the sky, Annie took a few shaky steps to the doorway of the plane and repeated over and over in her head everything she had been taught. Her eyes were already beginning to water with the sheer force of the wind, but thankfully she had tied her hair back tight enough so it wouldn't get in her face. 

When she saw the green light flash out of the corner of her eye, her body tensed up and for a moment she thought she was going to full-on refuse. However, when the instructor yelled for her to jump, her training took over and before she knew it she was falling away from the aircraft she had been inside mere seconds earlier. 

Margot watched with a sense of pride as her friend floated out of sight, and with her turn up next, she actually felt excited. The green light flashed, the instructor yelled, and she jumped out of the plane with her legs straight and stiff as if she were doing a pencil dive into the deep end of a pool. 

The first few seconds of the descent were both terrifying and exhilarating, but as soon as the chute deployed and her pace slowed to a controlled fall, Margot felt nothing but content as she looked out at the landscape for miles and miles all around her. 

When she finally landed peacefully in the field with the rest of her company members, she quickly detached herself from her chute to avoid being dragged around the field like she had been taught and promptly let out a happy cheer. 

Looking over to see one of the men standing over a body on the ground, a feeling of panic washed over Margot and she ran over to see what had happened. Coming to a stop beside Sergeant Lipton, Margot glanced down at the body on the ground. There, with a huge smile on her face, Annie was staring happily up at the sky.

Margot's brows furrowed as she looked to Lipton and then back down again to Annie. "Are you okay?"

"I'm great!" Annie laughed before finally standing up and dealing with her chute. "That was amazing! Can you believe we get to do that four more times?"

With a playful roll of his eyes, Lipton patted the small girl on the back before taking off to check on the rest of the men. And sure enough, four more jumps they did, and four more jumps later, each and every member of Easy Company had earned their jump wings.

●●● 

"1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000!" the table chanted as Guarnere downed his beer in a matter of seconds. After slamming the empty glass down on the table, he smiled wide, revealing the metal jump wings between his teeth. 

Removing the wings from his mouth as the table of men cheered, Guarnere laughed. "Hi-ho, silver!" he quoted Sobel's famous line before turning to Margot. "Your turn, sweet cheeks."

Margot set her beer down after taking a small sip like a civilized person. "Call me sweet cheeks again and you'll have those jump wings wedged between something other than your teeth," she warned, her tone light but her green eyes staring daggers at the man. 

The whole bar was filled to the brim with celebrating members of Easy Company, and boy what a celebration it was. Not only had everyone been granted their jump wings, but a few of the Easy Company members had also been promoted; John Martin, Joe Toye, Bill Guarnere, and even Margot Kessler being among the lucky few.

Margot was sure that if it were up to Sobel alone she would have been  _demoted_ instead of promoted, but due to the fact that Colonel Sink made the final call, she was now Corporal Margot Kessler. 

"You know, I knew I liked you from the moment I saw you," Guarnere stated as he threw an arm lazily over the shoulders of the girl from Charlotte, North Carolina. 

"No, you didn't," Margot called him on his blatant lie. "You, just like everyone else, thought I was just another useless woman. But that's okay because now we're all friends and we all know that I was right and you were wrong."

Guarnere let out a hearty laugh. "Yeah, you got me there," he admitted. "But I like you now, so all is well."

Finishing off her beer, Margot swatted Guarnere's arm off of her and stood up. "I'm going to get another drink," she told him. "You want one?"

"Are Sobel's pants on too tight?" he responded.

"I'll take that as a yes." Margot chuckled before pushing her way through the crowd and over to the bar. Spotting Annie leaning against the counter all by herself, Margot approached her friend and greeted her with a warm smile. "Hey, you not drinking?" she commented on the lack of a drink in the blonde's hand. 

Annie shrugged. "Not much of a drinker."

"Ah, I see." 

"Corporal Toye, there will be no leaning in my company." Luz appeared on the other side of the bar opposite Joe, his voice dropped low in order to imitate Sobel. "Are those dusty jump wings? How do you expect to slay the Huns with dust on your jump wings?"

Leaning in, Joe grabbed George by the front of his uniform and pulled him in close. "Luz, just give me a drink."

"Hell of an idea, Joe." Luz smiled wide before reaching below the bar and handing a beer over to his friend. "There you go. Three miles up, three miles down."

"Hey, you got any more of those under there?" Margot asked as she moved to stand beside Joe. "I need one for me and one for Bill."

Luz's smile returned as he turned to grab the requested beverages. "Gonorrhea got you fetching him drinks now?" he teased.

"Anything to get him to stop calling me sweet cheeks." 

"Ten-hut!"

In a matter of seconds, the music and chatting had stopped and the entire bar was on its feet standing at attention. Walking in with a grin plastered across his face, Colonel Sink stopped in front of the many tables and eyed the room full of people. "Well, at ease, paratroopers," he announced as the company gathered around to hear what he had to say. "Good evening, Easy Company." 

"Evening, sir," Annie replied along with the rest of the company.

"Now, parachute infantry is a brand new concept in American Military History. Another new concept, of course, is having women serving alongside the men." Colonel Sink gestured to Margot and Annie who stood at the bar. "But by God, the 506 is gonna forge those brand new concepts into victory."

"Yes, sir."

"I want you to know that I'm damn proud of each and every one of you. Now, you deserve this party." Colonel Sink took the drink that Sergeant Grant had offered and thanked him. "So, I want you to have fun and remember our motto...Currahee!"

"Currahee!" Easy Company rose their drinks before cheering and returning to the celebration at hand. 

With the music back on and the conversations from before in full swing once again, Margot took the drinks from Luz and gave him a nod before returning to her seat next to Guarnere.

Leaving just the smaller girl, Luz decided to strike up a conversation. "So," the radioman placed a drink on the counter as a peace offering for all the times he had joined in on making the small blonde feel less than welcome. "Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do for fun?"

Annie, who grabbed the drink to be kind without any real intentions of drinking it, thought for a moment. "I'm not sure," she answered. "I didn't really do anything when I was back home. That's the main reason why I'm here today."

"Mhmm," George nodded. "And where is home again exactly? Got a big family? Small family? Husband? Boyfriend?"

"New Haven, Connecticut," Annie answered the simplest of the series of questions first. "Decent sized family, I would say. Mom, dad, two brothers, one sister. My boyfriend's name is Steve. How about you?"

Luz took a sip of his beer before speaking. "West Warwick, Rhode Island is where I call home. Mom, Dad, six sisters, three brothers. No boyfriend."

Annie couldn't help but laugh at the last comment. "Six sisters," she repeated. "Wow."

"You're more shocked about the no boyfriend thing." he jested. 

Annie sighed, her eyes falling to look at the untouched drink in her hands. "You can have mine."

George saw the sadness wash over the girl's otherwise lively dark brown eyes and decided to drop the subject altogether. Instead, he opted to distract her with a story from when he was younger about the time he accidentally ran over one of his brothers while learning to ride a bike. It was a story that he was sure would cheer her up, and as he hoped, the girl was laughing uncontrollably in no time. 

Laughing and talking among the men of Easy Company, which once seemed like an impossible feat, the two women enjoyed their night, proud of what they had accomplished so far and excited for whatever was to come next.


	11. Textbook Position

On June 23rd, 1943, Margot returned to her home state of North Carolina with her company to attend Camp Mackall and work on maneuvers and field training. It was a weird feeling to be back in the place where she had spent most of her life because the last time she had been there she had been a completely different person. 

When Margot left home all those many months ago she was nothing more than the only employee of a mid-class shooting range and the daughter of a man who despised her. Now, she was Corporal Margot Kessler of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Divison, and she was one of the first female paratroopers in the history of the United States. 

Camp Mackall was also where Annie did most of her medic training alongside Roe and Spina. When she wasn't out with the rest of Easy Company completing drills and other training exercises, she was working in the local hospital with the other medics practicing her skills and learning as much as she possibly could. 

While Annie was sure that being a medic was indeed the right job for her, she also found herself worrying a lot of the time — her mind constantly berating her with 'what ifs'; so much so that she soon found herself spending almost all of her free time in the hospital. She knew war was about as unpredictable as it got and she wanted to be prepared for whatever she would be forced to face when the time came. 

Margot and Smokey, on the other hand, had fallen into a good pace with each other and were beginning to operate like a well-oiled machine. Smokey, since he was larger and stronger, carried the heavy M2 Browning and operated it while Margot carried the tripod, ammo, and barrels. Margot would direct Smokey where and when to shoot and he would listen to her every command. 

On occasion, the two would switch roles just so that they knew how to do the other person's job in case something happened. Margot excelled in both the role of the machine-gunner and the assistant machine-gunner, as did Smokey. In no time the two were a force to be reckoned with; they knew what the other person was thinking and they were always two steps ahead of each other's thought processes. 

On the whole, individual training was going pretty well among the paratroopers of Easy Company at Camp Mackall. However, not everything was rainbows and butterflies, and like usual, Sobel was the culprit. 

●●● 

Sobel was lost, or at least he  _thought_  he was lost. He really didn't have the faintest idea if he and his men were in the right position or not. The vast, seemingly empty woods around him were mostly quiet; a few birds chirping here and there and the sound of the wind whistling through the tree branches providing the eerie ambiance. 

Checking his watch, the Captain huffed before turning to his men. "Petty." he stage whispered and beckoned the man over. "Map. C'mon."

Standing up, Petty let out a low groan that only the men around him could hear as he swung his rifle strap over his shoulder and began to dig through his bag for the map. "Christ," he muttered, just as fed up with Sobel as everyone else was. 

Margot watched out of the corner of her eye as Sobel took the map and began to read it. "He's so lost." Margot looked down to her comrades in the ditch below as she adjusted the red strap around her arm that indicated which team she was on. 

A few of the men gave nods of agreement. "We're in the wrong position," Sobel said after a while, his eyes nervously scanning the surrounding area again. 

Sensing that something was up, Winters carefully made his way over to where the clearly shaken Captain was looking from his map, to the woods, to the map again. "We're in the wrong position," Sobel told the Lieutenant. 

"We're textbook position for ambush, sir." Winters kept his voice low. "We should sit tight, let the enemy team come into our killing zone."

Sobel shook his head as he pointed over Winter's shoulder into the distance. "They're right out there somewhere. Let's just get 'em."

"Sir, we have perfect cover here."

"Lieutenant, deploy your troops." Sobel's innocent optimism turned into cocky ignorance.

Drawing a deep breath in order to maintain his cool, Winters waited until Sobel had walked off before turning to his mem. "2nd Platoon, move out," he told them, earning quite a few confused looks. "Tactical column."

Grabbing the gun tripod from beside herself, Margot made sure the ammo was strapped on tight before she pushed herself off of the ground and fell into line beside Smokey. The platoon only made it about twenty meters away from their cover position before the enemy team popped up from the tall grass in front of them with rifles pointed their way.

Everyone froze. If that had been the real deal, they would have all probably been dead. 

"Captain, you've just been killed, along with ninety-five percent of your company." the drill instructor emerged from behind a tree. "Your outfit?"

Sobel's breathing was shakey; he knew he had messed up big time. "Easy Company, 2nd Battalion 506th." 

Rolling her eyes, Margot looked up at Joe Toye, whose expression matched her's almost to the T. Not only was their Captain a sadistic, power-hungry man but now he was also completely incompetent when it came to what really mattered; field strategy and staying alive.

"Leave three wounded men on the ground and report back to the assembly area." the instructor said, his patience running extremely thin with the ever building exhaustion. 

Eugene, who was shifting his weight back and forth from foot to foot, looked down at Annie, his fellow medic, and shot her a weary smile. He could tell she was just as uncomfortable and worried about the situation as he was by the way she quickly fluttered her fingers against the side of her leg. 

The French-speaking Medic from Louisianna had picked up on the small girl's nervous ticks early on and then couldn't help himself from noticing them every time since.  

"Goddammit," Sobel muttered under his breath before turning around and pointing to three random men to be left behind as wounded. "You, you, you."

●●● 

With damp hair and fresh ODs on, Margot and Annie returned from their shower feeling somewhere close to a million bucks. Their stomachs were full of food — even if that food was usually unidentifiable — they were wearing fresh, clean clothes, they weren't covered in mud and sweat anymore, and they were ready to get some much-needed sleep. 

There was still one them bothering them, however, and it was the same thing that had been bothering the entirety of Easy Company since they had arrived at Camp Mackall; and that one thing was Sobel. 

Before, when all he was was a belittling, egomaniac who wanted nothing more than to see them suffer, they could handle it. Sure, he made their lives a living hell, but they would survive. Now, however, as their training neared its end and they were preparing to ship out, his lack of experience and knowledge in the field was worrying, to say the least. This wasn't the difference between having a weekend pass or spending your free time cleaning the latrines, this was the difference between being in the right position or running straight into the enemy. This was the difference between life and death. 

And neither Margot nor Annie had come that far to let Sobel get them killed. 

The quiet chatting between the boys in the billet paused when the two women entered. Margot, who was always good for a laugh and could keep up with even the wittiest of the men, flashed a tired smile. "Good day, huh?" she sighed as she sat down on the edge of her bed and began to untie her laces. 

Martin, who was sitting in bed, the covers still tucked tight into the sides from that morning, scanned the letter he had just received from his wife Patricia. He was trying his best to concentrate, but he was so tired that his mind kept wandering and before he knew it he was two paragraphs in and hadn't the slightest idea what the letter even said. "As long as we keep doing what we're doing, we'll be fine," he commented on Margot's question as he tucked the letter away, deciding to read it fully in the morning. 

"If Sobel keeps doing what  _he's_  doing I'm gonna have my hands full with a lot of bodies." Annie, who usually wasn't so outspoken, surprised some of the men. 

"Guys, we really shouldn't be talking about this." Lipton, who was always the voice of reason, spoke up. 

Margot, even though she was always one of the first people to point out Sobel's flaws, actually nodded in agreement. "Lip's right." she climbed into bed and folded her arms underneath her head. "Whether we like it or not, he is our Captain."

"Look at you being all level-headed." Muck's voice was just above a whisper as the billet slowly began to settle in for the night.

"Must be the exhaustion." Margot shut her eyes and slowed her breathing. 

●●● 

The next morning as everyone got ready to head out for their long journey to England, Sobel was still the talk of the town. Duffle bags were packed, trucks were loaded, and comments about Sobel's ineptitude were spreading like wildfire. 

After passing her pack to Bull, who kindly tossed the heavy bag onto the truck with the rest, Margot thanked the large man with the cigar hanging out of his mouth and turned to join a few of the men who were sat in a semi-circle, their voices low as they conversed. 

"Shut up, Cobb." Margot heard Joe Toye say as she sat down, his hoarse voice so unique that she was sure she could pick the man out of a blind lineup after only hearing him say 'hello'. 

Cobb, who was fiddling with something in his hands, shrugged. "Eh, you gotta admit it. He's got no chance. Either the krauts will get him, or one of us."

Dropping down to sit between Toye and Popeye, Margot let out a small yawn, already knowing who they were talking about. "Lipton says we should talk about him anymore," she informed the men.

"Who, Sobel?" Liebgott appeared out of nowhere. 

"He screwed up one maneuver." Shifty Powers, the best marksman out of the whole company by far, was always one to give someone the benefit of the doubt. 

Liebgott smirked as he crouched down to join the discussion fully. "Well, you know, I'm always fumbling with grenades. It would be easy if one went off by accident, you know?" 

"Well, now they must have put him in charge for a reason." Shifty continued. 

"Yeah, 'cuz the Army wouldn't make a mistake, right, Shift?" Liebgott rolled his eyes at the naive conclusion. 

Margot's lips stretched into a straight line as she turned to look at Shifty. "I mean, even you have to admit, it was a pretty dumb mistake. We were in a textbook position and I even heard Winters tell Sobel that."

"Thought we weren't supposed to talk about it," Toye smirked down at the girl, his right eyebrow sliding up his forehead slightly.

"What can I say?" Margot let out a small chuckle as she stood back up again. "I'm a sucker for gossip."


	12. Out at Sea

With her knees tucked up against her chest, Annie used the back of a paperback book for support as she carefully wrote out a letter to her family. With all of the training, both field and medical, that she had been doing at Camp Mackall, she hadn't had time to respond to any letters yet.

After the first few correspondences of letting her family know that she was really a paratrooper and that she would really be going to war, the letters from her parents and siblings had gone from worried and over-protective to fully supportive. Sometimes, she would even read her letters out loud to Margot because she felt bad that the tall, raven-haired woman never got any mail. 

Feeling another large bump as the train powered on down the tracks, Annie sighed and quickly finished up the letter before another rumble caused her to mess up again. 

"Writing home to the folks?" Margot plopped down next to Annie and watched over her should as the small blonde folded the paper up and tucked it away. 

Annie nodded. "Mhmm. I was telling them all for the millionth time that I'm doing just fine. My mom and dad always ask questions about me and my siblings always ask questions about everyone else. I think my younger brother Timothy is obsessed with half of the company. He loves hearing the cool stories about the guys."

"I wish I had a big family like that." Margot fantasized as she stared past Annie and out the window at the passing scenery. 

"I've heard you mention your dad before," Annie recalled the few times Margot had actually opened up about her home life before joining WAAC. "What about your mom?"

Margot's breathing hitched a little when she heard the question. "Passed," she answered simply. "Pneumonia." 

Annie could tell the topic was a sensitive one for her friend, so she simply gave her her condolences before moving on to a new subject. 

The twelve-hour train ride from North Carolina to New York was a very long and tiring one for Easy Company. After spending months doing physical activity from sunrise to sunset, it didn't take long for the men and women to grow restless in the cramped spaces of the train cars. As a result, there were a lot of card games, a lot of laughs, and a lot of bonding. 

On September 6th Easy Company arrived at the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard where they would be boarding the S.S. Samaria to take them to England. For Margot, Annie, and many of the men, this was going to be their first time on a boat.

With a life jacket around her neck just like everyone else, Annie rested her arms on the railing of the large ship and watched as one of the all-purpose military vehicles was hoisted up onto the vessel with large chains. Lines of men were heading up the ramp below her to board the ship and for the first time since everything had started, she really felt like she was a part of something bigger. 

Once everything and everyone was on board, the ship set off on its journey, passing by Liberty Island on the way. The sight of the Statue of Liberty towering over them with the pink sky of sunrise in the background was one of the most beautiful things Annie had ever seen, and at that moment she vowed that if she made it back from the war, she would return to Brooklyn and look out at the Statue at sunrise once again. 

Inhaling deeply on the cigarette between her lips, Margot smirked before slowly letting the smoke exit her lungs. "Fuckin' beautiful." she murmured. The men around her nodded in agreement as the silence took over once more, allowing everyone to just take the moment in and enjoy the peace. 

The inside of the ship, on the other hand, was a much less idyllic sight. Crammed together with barely enough room to walk between and stacked five or six high, the bunks on the ship were small and sure to make anyone, claustrophobic or not, feel suffocated. 

Annie, who was the smallest of the company, was quick to snag a bottom bunk as quickly as she could in order to avoid climbing up and down from a higher bed all the time. Margot, who had spent a little more time on the deck with some of the other men, enjoying a smoke and watching land slowly disappear into the distance, wasn't so lucky. When she had finally entered the sleeping quarters, the only beds left were the ones at the top. 

"Oh, this'll be fun." Margot huffed as she began her climb up to the closest empty bed. 

"Hey, get your foot outta my face!" someone complained, swatting her leg away as she struggled up the bunks. 

Peering down, Margot saw that the trooper who had voiced his concern was Cobb, an angry man that she tended to avoid at all costs. After witnessing a few of his outbursts, both sober and drunk, she had vowed to give him his distance and urged Annie to do the same. 

"Hit me one more time and my foot won't be  _in_  your face, it'll be  _on_  it." Margot retorted as she lifted herself up into the bed above his and sat with her feet dangling over the edge. 

Trying not to feel too overwhelmed by the crowded quarters, Annie concentrated on the conversations around her and soon found herself chuckling after overhearing Muck complain about not heading to the South Pacific where he could be billeted on a tropical island, sit under a palm tree with six naked native girls, and cut up coconuts to feed to flamingos. 

"Hey, guys, I'm glad I'm going to Europe." Joe Toye flipped up his switchblade as he spoke. "Hitler gets one of these right across the windpipe. Roosevelt changes Thanksgiving to Joe Toye day and pays me ten grand a year for the rest of my fucking life." 

"What if we don't get to Europe?" Smokey asked. "What if they send us to North Africa?"

Guarnere, who was a bunk below Smokey, lifted the cigarette out of his mouth. "My brother's in North Africa. He says it's hot."

"Really?" Malarkey looked up from the magazine he was lazily flipping through. "It's hot in Africa?"

"Shut up." Guarnere chortled. "The point is, it don't matter where we go. Once we get into combat, the only person you can trust is yourself and the fella next to you."

"Hey, as long as he's a paratrooper." Toye rolled onto his stomach and glanced at Guarnere, who was behind him. 

Luz, who was climbing up the bunks just like Margot had been not long before, scoffed. "Oh, yeah? What if that paratrooper turns out to be Sobel?"

"Then you're fucked." Margot piped up, earning a few chuckles here and there. "Or, you're completely safe because instead of leading you into war, he has lead you into the middle of some farmer's field." 

Christenson huffed as Luz's boot stepped onto the edge of his bunk, causing the whole thing to shake. "If I'm next to Sobel in combat, I'm moving on down the line. Hook up with some other officer, like Heyliger or Winters."

"I think Winters is a good Lieutenant." Annie joined the discussion. "He knows what he's doing and he's quick on his feet."

Guarnere shrugged. "I like Winters, he's a good man. But when the bullets start flying, I don't know if I want a Quaker doing my fighting for me."

"How do you know he's a Quaker?" Malarkey inquired as he propped himself up with his elbows. 

"He ain't Catholic." Guarnere jumped out of bed and placed his cigarette between his lips. 

"Neither is Sobel."

"That prick's the son of Abraham."

Liebgott, who had thus far just been sitting on the edge of his bed, listening to the conversation take place, perked up at the insult. "He's what?" he looked down at Guarnere, almost daring him to say it again.

"He's a Jew," Guarnere answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. 

Letting out an almost slightly amused scoff, Liebgott jumped down from his bed and planted himself directly in front of Guarnere. "I'm a Jew," he informed him. 

Both Margot and Annie tensed at the approaching altercation that was sure to happen one way or the other. The men around the two disagreeing parties had tuned in to see what was going to happen as well. 

Guarnere glared at the man in front of him. "Congratulations." he seethed. "Get your nose out of my face."

With that, Liebgott threw the first punch. Bringing his arm up just in time to block the hit, Guarnere grabbed onto Liebgott's shirt and just like that, the two were battling it out in the middle of the very small walkway between the bunks. 

Men from all directions jumped in to stop the fighting, but the two were dead set on kicking the crap out of one another. With worry spreading through her like a wildfire, Annie jumped to her feet and approached the pile of men. "Stop it!" her small voice broke through the screaming and yelling. "Save the fighting for the enemy! I don't want to have to patch you two up because you-"

The blonde girl's sentence was cut off by Liebgott's elbow colliding with her face. With an involuntary shriek, Annie fell backward and landed on her side, her hands cupping her nose. The fighting and yelling came to a screeching halt and the room went silent, all eyes looking to the small girl who was moaning in pain on the ground. 

With fury burning inside of her like red hot embers, Margot quickly descended from her bunk and went to the aid of her friend. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she snapped at the childish men. "We've got enough to worry about around here and you two are at each other's necks over something as minuscule as Sobel being or not being a Jew?"

 I-I'm sorry-" Liebgott stumbled over his words as he approached Annie. "Is she okay?"

Turning her attention to the blonde, Margot helped her slowly sit up. "Move your hands," she instructed. "How bad does it feel?"

As Annie finally pulled her hands away from her face, her palms, fingers, nose, and mouth covered in blood, a series of small gasps echoed through the ship's quarters. "It's okay." she looked up at Liebgott, sympathy overwhelming her as the man's face flushed with guilt. "It's not broken; nose's just bleed a lot. I'm okay." 

"Let's get you cleaned up," Margot instructed as she helped her injured friend stand up before leading her away towards the bathroom; her eyes staring daggers at Liebgott and Guarnere on the way. 

Once in the bathroom, Annie walked directly over to the sink, turned on the tap, and began to wash away the blood from her hands and face. Margot, who was shifting nervously, watched her carefully, trying to discern if the smaller girl was in more pain than she was letting on. 

"You sure it's not broken?" Margot asked.

Annie nodded as she reached for some paper towel to dry off with. "I'm sure. It hurts a little, but not nearly as much as it would if it were broken. I'll be okay."

"Those guys are such idiots," Margot grumbled, her hand moving to her mouth so she could chew at her nails. 

Annie couldn't help but let out a laugh as she watched her overprotective friend jitter as if she had just downed three cups of coffee. "Just because I'm small doesn't mean I can't handle myself," she assured the taller, darker-haired woman. "We're going to war. I'm sure I'm eventually going to suffer something worse than a blow to the nose."

"I'm just..." Margot paused for a moment. "You're like a sister to me. I can't help it."

Annie smiled wide at the heartwarming sentiment. "I always wanted an older sister."

Once Annie was all cleaned up and Margot had calmed down, the two returned to the sleeping quarters, the men's eyes trained on Annie as soon as she was in sight again. "I'm real sorry, Annie." Liebgott approached her, sincerity evident by the way his eyes scanned her face for any fragment of pain. 

"Oh, Lieb, I'm fine," Annie told him, the feeling of being the center of attention making her uncomfortable. "You don't hit nearly as hard as you think you do."

Guarnere let out a wheezy laugh at that before turning to the small blonde as well. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't of...well, you know." 

"Just make sure you don't make a habit out of picking fights with the men on our side of the war." Annie calmed as the tension in the air slowly dissipated. "Just be a good boy, Gonorrhea."

Guarnere's mouth curled up into a smile. "You got it, little lady."


	13. The English Countryside

Aldbourne, England was a very quaint town that Margot was sure she would have enjoyed living in when there weren't troops training just over the hills and planes flying overhead at all hours of the day. In some ways, it reminded her of home. The way the fog hung low in the morning was reminiscent of when Margot would wake up super early in the summer and head out to work when there was still a sliver of the moon in the sky and morning dew on the grass.

"Attack!" 

Letting out a sigh, Margot lazily approached Annie from behind before letting the small girl grab her by the shirt and throw her over her shoulder and onto the ground. They had been training for ages and both women were sore and covered in grass stains, but that wasn't the part that had them annoyed. 

"Sir," Margot called out to the instructor as she pushed herself up off of the ground for what felt like the millionth time. 

"Yes, Corporal Kessler?" the man huffed as he approached the two women. "What is it?"

The men all paused their training and turned to Margot to hear what she was going to say. "Sir, I know you said that Private Winslow and I should be paired up for this drill, but I really think we would benefit more from being paired up with some of the other men."

The man folded his arms across his chest and decided to humor the tall, toned woman in front of him. "You do? And why would that be, Corporal Kessler?"

"Well, sir..." Margot began, feeling the eyes of her company on her as she spoke. "...there aren't a lot of women in the Army, sir. In fact, I'm willing to bet Private Winslow and I are the first you've ever come across and see, I don't think the enemies are going to have a lot of women either. Having us train to fight each other, as fair as it may seem, is actually doing nothing more than putting us at a disadvantage. Out there, on the front lines, we will be fighting men, sir. So it only makes sense that we train to fight men as well."

The drill instructor was silent as the watching eyes focused on him. The men of Easy Company had witnessed on more than one occasion Margot's undeniable skill when it came to a verbal smackdown, but now they had just witnessed how well she could incapacitate someone without even raising her voice or throwing in an insult. 

"Ah, I...I do see how that would make sense, yes." the instructor nodded slowly before turning and pointing to Toye and Liebgott. "You two split up and partner with the women."

"I call Lieb." Annie's smile twisted into something slightly sinister. "Gotta get him back for what he did on the ship."

Liebgott's eyes widened. "Hey, I said I was sorry. Besides, you said it didn't even hurt that bad anyways."

Walking over to Joe with a little pep in her step after getting her way, Margot smiled wide before planting her feet firmly in front of the larger man. "Come on, Toye." she egged him on as if she were in a karate movie. "Show me what you got."

Joe only laughed. "Look, I'm glad you got your way, and I believe you're right, but I really don't want to hurt you."

Margot rolled her eyes as she straightened up and positioned her body more seriously to take on an incoming attack. "Oh, come on. I'm gonna end up in hand to hand combat with a man eventually, and I'd rather the first time be with someone on my side instead of someone on the other side who's actually gonna kill me."

Joe knew arguing with Margot was useless; he'd seen many men try and he'd seen many men fail. So, with a shrug of defeat, he spun around and told her to give him all she had. Happily, Margot attacked the man from behind, and in a split second, she was over his shoulder and smacking hard into the ground. 

"How's that?" he asked, knowing full well she was going to feel it in the morning. 

Margot actually rejoiced at the pain that was throbbing through her left side. "Brilliant." she stood up and spun around. "My turn."

"Okay, now if you think you're gonna-"

"Joe." Margot looked over her shoulder at him, a lock of her black hair falling out of her ponytail as she did. "Will you just shut up and try to kill me already?"

Joe couldn't help the smirk that played on the corners of his mouth, and with a gentle sigh, he motioned for her to turn around. 

Margot knew that she would never win a fight against a man using pure force or strength, so she had to come up with other ways to use her body to her advantage. While she was taller than Annie, she was still shorter than most of the men, which meant she had a lower center of gravity that she could utilize. She also had a pretty good sense of balance and was quick on her feet. 

As Margot felt Joe wrap his arms around her from behind, she quickly grabbed him by the sleeve, bent her knees, stepped back with her left foot, and with one giant push forward, propelled the large man over her shoulder and onto the grass at her feet. 

Blinking the shock away, Joe stared up at the girl who was standing over him and smirking. "How was that?" she mocked. 

After hand-to-hand combat was bayonet training, and then everyone's favourite, classroom instruction. 

"Okay." Easy's new Lieutenant, Harry Welsh, cleared his throat as he began his lesson. "Yesterday we talked about magnetic declination and the left add, right subtract rule. Today we're gonna put it into practice."

In-class instruction, like always, seemed to drag on for hours and Annie wanted nothing more than to be up and on her feet again; that was until she was standing outside digging a trench with Lipton shouting about fighting positions over her shoulder.

"There are two basic types of fighting positions," Lipton spoke loud to ensure everyone could hear him over the sound of shovels scraping against hard dirt. "The first is the prepared position. The advantages of a prepared position are that it gives you cover and concealment."

Jumping down into the ditch beside Webster, the Harvard student with a knack for knowledge, Annie grumbled as she sunk her shovel deep into the Earth below her, wishing she could tune Lipton out and just focus on digging. 

After trenches with Lipton was gun training. The men and women of Easy Company practiced with their rifles and their handguns, and the machine-gunners like Margot and Smokey also got in some more training with the M1 Browning. Others even gave the rocket-launcher a test drive. 

Next was maneuvers with Colonel Sink, which was absolutely just as boring as it sounds; even worse than the left add, right subtract rule with Lieutenant Welsh. 

The real fun, however, was putting the maneuvers into action with the wise leadership of Winters and not-so-wise leadership of Sobel. Luckily, 2nd Platoon was being led by Winters, so Margot was in the clear. Annie however, since she was a medic and constantly rotated between the three platoons, was unluckily placed in 1st Platoon with Sobel.

Dashing across the field, Margot followed the movements of the men around her and quickly ducked behind a row of shrubs beside Guarnere. Winters, who was accompanied by Lipton, scanned the surrounding area before glancing down at his watch. 

"Sobel's late." Winter's announced, which didn't shock or surprise Lipton in the slightest. It was a mystery to 2nd Platoon where Sobel and his men were and why they were taking so long.

Annie, however, was witnessing first hand yet again the disaster that was following Sobel through field maneuvers. As she and the rest of 1st Platoon came up on a barbed wire fence in the middle of the field they were running through, she immediately knew something was wrong.

Sobel, who stood out like a sore thumb among the paratroopers with his leather jacket and large, white fluffy collar, stared at the fence in horror. "Why is there a fence here?" he asked out loud to no one but himself as Tipper already began digging for the map in his bag; he knew the drill. 

"Tipper!" Sobel yelled, not noticing that the man was standing right beside him. Holding the map out to Sobel, Tipper just sighed and watched as the Captain took it from him and flipped it open. "Perconte, Luz," Sobel called out when he realized that everyone was just standing out in the open. "Get the men, get 'em...take cover behind those trees."

Turning to the rest of the men, and woman, Luz and Perconte herded 1st Platoon to the middle of the field where a large patch of trees provided a decent amount of cover. As the platoon took off, Sobel stared down at the map, completely and utterly rattled. "There should be no...there should be no fence here."

"We could go over it, sir." Evans, Sobel's right-hand man, suggested.

"Really?" Sobel snapped. "That's not the point. Where the goddamn hell are we?" 

As 1st Platoon took their cover behind the trees as instructed, the men began to mutter among themselves about Sobel. "Sobel's lost again, isn't he?" Annie sighed as she adjusted the medic bag on her body. 

"Yeah, he's lost," Perconte grumbled as an idea popped into his head. "Hey, Luz," he called over the man known for his legendary impressions. "Can you do Major Horton?"

"Does a wild bear crap in the woods, son?" Luz laid the voice on thick as the men gathered around him. 

Annie couldn't help but smile at the silly antics. "Maybe the good Major can goose this schmuck?" Perconte suggested. "Get us moving?"

Luz smiled at the idea but refused, knowing he could get in a lot of trouble for it. "No. No way" he shook his head.

"Oh, yeah. Yes." Muck piped up from behind him. "Luz, you gotta. You gotta."

Knowing the men around him were bad influences, Luz turned to Annie, his eyes silently asking for her opinion on the matter. Annie knew it was a bad idea too, but damn if she didn't love sharing a laugh with the men over one of Luz's impressions; and if it messed with Sobel a little bit too, that was just a bonus. 

"What the hell?" she shrugged, earning a few whispered cheers from the men. "Give it all you got."

"Alright, just this once." Luz agreed as the bodies around him bent down into cover position. "Is there a problem, Captain Sobel?" he bellowed, his on-point Major Horton voice echoing through the field.

Looking up from the map after learning he was a full grid off, Sobel turned to the trees where 1st Platoon was taking cover. "Who said that?" he demanded. "Who broke silence?"

Tipper, who knew full well what was going on and was trying desperately to hide his smile, turned to Sobel. "I think it's Major Horton, sir."

"Major Horton?" Sobel's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "What is he...did he join us?"

"I think maybe he's moving between the platoons, sir." Tipper did his part in keeping the charade going.

"What is the goddamn holdup, Mr. Sobel?" Luz — or in the eyes of Sobel, Major Horton — yelled; Annie and the men around her struggling to keep from bursting out into laughter. 

Sobel's heart rate quickened and he swallowed hard. "A fence, sir. A barbed wire fence."

"Oh, that dog just ain't gonna hunt," Luz replied before shushing the men around him. "Now, you cut that fence and get this goddamn platoon on the move!"

"Yes, sir." Sobel turned to Evans before searching himself for his wire cutters. 

Annie was about to explode at that point and was lying on the ground clutching her stomach from the pain of holding in the laughter. No matter how bad of an idea it might have been, and despite the fact that it would probably come back to bite them in the asses later on, Annie was fully happy with her decision to support the Major Horton impersonation. 

Luz, who was still shushing the men around him, smiled at the sight of Annie on the ground, tears welling in her eyes from her silent giggling. He would do a million impressions if it meant making the small blonde laugh like that. 

Back at 2nd Platoon, however, things were a lot duller. Margot and the rest of the platoon had been waiting for ages for Sobel and 1st Platoon, and as the minutes ticked by, they were putting themselves at more hypothetical risk by staying put. 

"We have to move." Winters looked to his watch again.

"Sir, without Captain Sobel and 1st Platoon?" Lipton inquired.

Winters sighed. "It's a T intersection. We improvise. Double envelopment, lay down a base of fire to cut the road in all directions. Hook right with 1st squad. Tell Guarnere to move left with 2nd. I'll be right up the middle with 3rd. Go."

"Yes, sir." Lipton nodded before joining up with 1st squad. 

Turning around, Winters used hand signals to convey the plan to Guarnere and within seconds they were on the move. Breaking through the bushes, Margot followed Guarnere's lead as they crossed the road. 

Before long all three squads had made it across the T intersection road to the objective point and thoroughly confused one old man on a bicycle. 

"Hi-ho, silver!" Sobel's voice could be heard as he and 1st Platoon came running down the road. 

"Good work, 2nd Platoon. We took the objective." Winters praised his group as he watched Sobel run down the road in that ridiculous leather jacket that made him look like even more of an idiot than he already was. 

When Sobel arrived and saw that 2nd Platoon had moved ahead to capture the objective without him, he knew he had once again messed up. The members of his platoon, however, found it amusing. 

Easy Company would soon find out, though, that nothing was more amusing than returning to base to find a herd of cows wandering around. Apparently, the fence that Sobel had cut had indeed been there for a reason, and that reason was to keep a farmer's cows from wandering the countryside like they were doing that very instance. 

To make matters worse, Sobel wasn't too thrilled with Easy Company and their 1st Lieutenant when he found out Major Horton was actually on leave in London instead of ordering him to cut fences down.


	14. I No Longer Wish to Serve

Sobel was on a warpath. After the stunt that was pulled on him that resulted in about a dozen loose cows, he was looking for every and any way to punish the men and women of Easy Company; and who better to go after than their beloved Lieutenant, Richard Winters.

Margot, who had been playing a small pickup game of basketball with Perconte, Bull, and Malarkey, witnessed the beginning of the chaos with her own eyes. In the form of a small envelope delivered to Winters by Evans, Sobel had court-martialed the Lieutenant.

The court-martial didn't even make any sense, and when Lieutenant Winters tried to explain to Captain Sobel that there was no way he could have known his latrine inspection time had been changed when he was staying with a family with no telephone and when no runner came to the house, he was met with nothing but hostility.

Deciding to finally stand up to the adult-bully, Winters didn't take the punishment and instead requested a trial by court-martial. This action, however, meant that Easy Company would lose Lieutenant Winters to Battalion Mess while they tried to figure out the procedures for his court-martial. 

When Easy Company found that out, to say they were angry was a gross understatement. 

Sitting around a table with a few of the other Easy NCOs, Margot listened to the discussion at hand and threw in her two cents when she thought it appropriate. What they were talking about was something none of them took lightly.

"So we're going through with this, right?" Grant asked, earning nods from the members present. 

Lipton looked around the table and sighed. "Alright. Good. But we'd all better be clear of the consequences."

"I don't care about the consequences." Martin huffed.

"John." Lipton addressed his friend. "We could be lined up against a wall and shot. Now, I'm ready to face that. And every one of us had better be too."

Margot, who's leg shook as she took a drag of her cigarette, ran her free hand through her hair in frustration. "We shouldn't even have to do this shit," she stated. "The fact that we have to sit here and decide between jumping into war with an incompetent Captain or facing the possibility of being shot to death is insane! You're telling me this is really our only option? Decide between being shot out there or being shot right here?" 

"I already said you shouldn't be here, Margot." Lipton tried yet again to save the girl from the harsh reality of the possible consequences. "You've worked too hard to get kicked out or shot now."

"You know that's not what I mean." Margot leaned forward in her seat and put out her cigarette in the ashtray in front of her. "There's no way in hell I'm gonna stand by idly and let this happen. I just think it's absolutely fucking nuts that we have to do this in the first place."

Accepting the strong-willed woman's decision, Lipton eyed the rest of the men, his gaze landing on Guarnere. "I will not follow that man into combat," Guarnere asserted. 

"Me, neither." Bull agreed. 

"Alright." Lipton took a deep breath. "Then let's do it."

Pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil, Margot wrote down word for word, along with everyone else, what Guarnere told them to. Ten seconds later she had a letter that had the possibility of ending her career or even her life.

 

_I hereby no longer wish to serve as a non-commissioned officer in Easy Company._

_-Margot Kessler_

 

Once everyone had signed off on their notice, they all looked up at each other, faces flushed with worry and fear. As Lipton collected all the letters, he stood up and gave the table one last nod. "Alright. Good luck."

●●● 

"I ought to have you all shot!" Colonel Sink addressed the NCOs standing before him in his office. "This is nothing less than an act of mutiny while we prepare for the goddamn invasion of Europe. Sergeant Harris." 

"Sir," Harris responded.

Colonel Sink folded his hands over his stomach. "Turn in your stripes, collect your gear. You are hereby transferred out of my regiment. Get out."

With a final solute, Harris turned and exited the office. "Sergeant Ranney." Sink moved on to the next Sergeant in line.

"Sir."

"You consider yourself lucky I'm only busting you to private." 

Margot felt a lump in her throat form and her palms begin to sweat as Colonel Sink's eyes settled on her. Her heart was beating against her ribcage hard and the only thing running through her mind was that she was about three seconds away from being sent back home to North Carolina to run her father's shooting range again. 

"Corporal Kessler."

"Sir." Margot's voice was strong even though the rest of her was practically shaking like a wet dog. 

"I put my job on the line vouching for you and Captain Miller's 'women in the Army' experiment." he began. "Through everything I have seen from you, I wouldn't expect you to be so stupid as to pull a stunt like this after how hard you've worked to be here. While transferring you isn't an option and busting you to Private doesn't seem like big enough of a consequence considering you're only a Corporal, I have half a mind to send you home right here and now."

There is was. Margot could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. So much for being the first woman machine-gunner to see the front lines of war. All she would ever be known as would be that girl who almost made history but instead messed it all up because she didn't like her Captain. 

"However-" Colonel Sink sighed, his temper lessening slightly. "I've invested too much into you to see you go down like this, so consider this a  _strict_  warning that if you ever participate in a rebellion like this again, or even so much as step out of line, I will have you out of the United States Army faster than you can blink." 

"Thank you, sir." Margot let out the breath that she had been holding in.

His eyes shifting to look at the rest of the men, Colonel Sink made sure they got the same message. "All of you NCOs have disgraced the 101st Airborne. You can consider yourself lucky that we're on the eve of the largest action in the history of warfare, which leaves me no choice but to spare your lives. Now get out of my office and get out of my sight."

With a solute, the NCOs of Easy Company exited the office and headed back outside. Winters, who was overseeing the delivery of kitchen supplies thanks to his new assignment to Battalion Mess, noticed the group of men and one woman leaving the building where Colonel Sink's office was and immediately knew something was up. 

Margot, along with the others, saluted Winters as she passed by, just happy to still have her job and her life. Once they were out of earshot, she hung her head and let out a nervous laugh. "I thought he was gonna shoot me on the spot," she confessed.

"But somehow you got away unscathed." Ranney huffed, clearly upset at his demotion to Private.

"Hey," Lipton calmed everyone down. "The important thing is, we've all still got our heads." 

●●● 

After getting away with their lives, Margot and the other NCOs were convinced they had come out on top and were happy with the results. None of them expected their stunt to actually work, but apparently, after having a group of NCOs request to leave the service, Colonel Sink had realized something was going on.

A few days later, Captain Sobel was gone; sent to teach at a parachute training school at Chilton Foliat. In his place was going to be Lieutenant Meehan from Baker Company, who even though nobody knew really well, was sure to be better than Sobel.


	15. The Great Adventure

On May 31st, 1944, Easy Company arrived in Upottery, England, where they would be stationed until they dropped into Europe. 

"2nd Platoon, listen up!" new arrival and assistant 2nd Platoon leader, Lynn 'Buck' Compton, instructed the men as they hopped out of the backs of the trucks that had transported them to the airfield. "I want the 1st squad and A-side tents right up there."

As the orders continued to fly, Margot and Annie helped the rest of the men unload the trucks and set up the tents. As Margot reached up to help Smokey unload their machine gun, Annie shot her a worried look. After just hearing the story about the NCO rebellion back in Aldbourne, she was concerned for her friend.

Noticing the glare, Margot shook her head in slight amusement. "Oh, Annie, it's not that big of a deal. I'm still here, aren't I?"

"That's not the point!" Annie threw her hands up into the air. "What if you  _had_  been sent home? You would leave me here all by myself?"

"Annie," Margot warned, "You're making a big deal out of nothing here. Why don't you go yell at Guarnere or Martin about it? They did the same thing I did."

"Neither Guarnere nor Martin are my best friend, now are they?"

Margot was just about to respond when Lieutenant Compton approached them. "Ladies," he greeted with a smile. "I just wanted to introduce myself personally. I, like a lot of the men around here, have heard a lot about you two."

Annie's demeanor switched from angry to sweet in a matter of seconds. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." she saluted. "But I promise, we're nothing special."

"Speak for yourself." Margot joked as she hoisted the heavy M1 Browning over her shoulder with a grunt. "I'm one hell of a markswoman if I do say so myself. Plus, I play a mean game of darts."

Buck let out a loud, booming laugh. "I'll have to see that for myself."

"Which one?" Margot cocked a brow. "The shooting or the darts?"

"Both."

●●● 

"St. Marie Du Mont." Lieutenant Meehan spoke loud enough for everyone to hear as he pointed to the maps behind himself and explained the plan for the eventual drop into Europe. "Causeway number one. Causeway number two. The ultimate field problem. The estuary of the Douve river divides two beachheads, code name Utah, here, and Omaha, here. Seaborn infantry will hit these beaches in force at a date and time to be specified. H-hour, D-day. Airborne's objective is to take the town of Carentan, thus linking Utah and Omaha into a single, continuous beachhead. Each trooper will learn this operation by heart and know his and every other outfit's mission to the detail."

Standing to his feet, Dukeman rose his hand. "Lieutenant Meehan?"

"Yes, Dukeman?"

"Sir, are we dropping tonight?" he asked the question that was burning in everyone's mind. 

"When it's time for you to know, we'll let you know." Meehan answered, which was code for 'I don't know either'. "In the meantime, study these sand tables, maps, and reconnaissance photos until you can draw a map of the area by memory. Now, we will drop behind this Atlantic wall five hours before the 4th infantry lands at Utah. And between our assembly area and the town's objective, there's a German Garrison, right here in this area, St. Marie Du Mont. Easy Company will destroy that garrison." 

"Yay," Margot whispered as she searched her pockets for a cigarette. When none came up, she reached forward and plucked the extra one Liebgott had sitting behind his ear. 

Turning around, Liebgott looked to the girl and sighed. "Oh, come on. That was for later."

"Well," Margot placed the cigarette between her lips as Bull reached over to light it for her, "now it's for now. Thanks, Lieb."

●●● 

"Three day supply of K-rations, chocolate bars, Charms candy, powdered coffee, sugar, matches, compass, bayonet, ammunition, gas mask, musette bag with ammo, my webbing, my .45, canteen, two cartons of smokes, Hawkins mine, smoke grenade, Gammon grenade, TNT, this bullshit, and a pair of nasty skivvies," Toye complained loudly as he stared down at all the supplies he had laid out on the tarmac in front of him. 

Margot, who was behind Toye and who had just as much 'bullshit' laid out before her as he did, sat back on her haunches and sighed. "What are you complaining about now?"

"You know, this weighs as much as l do." he ripped the gloves off of his hands. "l still got my chute, my reserve chute, Mae West, my M-1."

"Where are you keeping your brass knuckles?" Perconte quipped as he stood up.

Joe stared up at Perconte and narrowed his eyes in contemplation. "l could use some brass knuckles."

"No brass knuckles!" Annie, who had overheard the conversation, put her foot down. "I am not tending to broken fingers because you used them wrong."

Margot laughed. "You heard the medic. No brass knuckles."

"Antonia Winslow!" Vest called as he walked down the line with the mail for the day. "Private Winslow!"

Standing up, Annie waved to get Vest's attention. "Over here!" she walked over to meet him halfway. Handing the letter over, Vest gave the girl a smile before taking off to find John Martin. 

"Letter from home?" Margot asked, her hand coming up to block the sun from her eyes. 

Annie looked down at the writing on the back of the envelope and nodded slightly. "It's from Steve."

As Annie walked away to head back to her gear and tuck the letter away for later, Joe cocked a brow at Margot. "Steve?"

"Boyfriend," Margot told him. "Asshole boyfriend, actually."

"Mmm." he nodded. "What about you? You got a boyfriend back home? Husband?"

Margot smirked at the man. "Maybe I do. Why you asking?"

"No reason," he answered, nothing in his tone or facial expression to suggest anything otherwise. "Just making conversation."

"Alright, listen up, listen up!" Lipton announced. "If you did not sign your GI life insurance policy, you go on over and see Sergeant Evans at the headquarter's company tent. You boys don't let your families miss out on ten thousand dollars." he eyed Margot as he walked passed. "You ladies, either."

"Don't worry, Lip. I already signed," she assured the man who just wanted the best for his troopers. "Even though I hate the thought of my dad getting ten thousand dollars because I died. To him, I'm sure that would seem like two rewards all wrapped up into one."

Lipton's face fell at the girl's words, but he persisted with a smile afterward anyway. "Well, we'll just have to make sure you make it back, then."

"Hey, sounds good to me." Margot stood up and went to go retrieve the leg-bag that had just been newly issued to every paratrooper. "Oh, and to answer your question." she stopped for a second and looked down at Joe. "No."

He looked up at her with a quizzical expression. "What?"

"Your question. About if I have a boyfriend or a husband." she reminded him. "No, I don't."

With that, Margot turned and walked over to where they were handing out the leg bags. Upon receiving hers, she moved to the side where Malarkey, Annie, and Luz were trying to figure out how they worked and joined the struggle. 

"This thing is totally gonna come off in the jump," Annie predicted as she inspected the extra bag in her hands. "I'm definitely not putting anything super important in here."

"What counts as not important?" Luz questioned as he fiddled with the bag strap. 

Annie paused for a moment. "The food, I guess? I'm not putting any medical supplies in this flimsy piece of garbage." 

"What kind of disaster are we getting ourselves into where food counts as the non-important stuff?" Malarkey huffed. 

With a few dry chuckles, Vest came by and handed them each a letter from Colonel Sink. "Soldiers of the regiment: Tonight is the night..." Luz dropped his Colonel Sink impression and continued in his own voice, "...of nights. Today, as you read this, you are en route to the great adventure for which you have trained for over two years."

"So, that's why they gave us ice cream." Guarnere gestured to the bowl in his lap before passing his letter back to Popeye, who hadn't gotten one. 

An hour or so later, after Easy Company had geared up and smeared black grease paint all over their faces, they stood together on the tarmac awaiting further instructions. "Easy Company, listen up!" Lieutenant Meehan bellowed as he climbed onto the hood of one of the jeeps. "Channel coast is socked in with rain and fog. No jump tonight. The invasion has been postponed. We're on a twenty-four-hour stand-down."

Groans spread throughout the company as everyone realized they would have to gear up and paint up all over again sometime in the near future. "Oh, for crying out loud." Margot threw her head back before starting to unclip the various bags and equipment from her body. 

Since the drop had been cancelled, a majority of Easy Company gathered in the movie tent that evening to watch a film. Annie hadn't ever seen the particular film before, but she was only really half-paying attention. Her mind kept wandering back to the letter she had received earlier that day. She had yet to read it, but something was telling her it wasn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows; it never was when Steve wrote to her. 

Deciding to get it over with, the small blonde fished the letter out of her jacket pocket and opened it.

 

_Dearest Annie,_

_As I sit here writing to you, I wish nothing more than to send you my love and affection, for you know that I love you. However, the contents of your last letter have left me feeling uneasy and I'm afraid I must address them._

_I worry that you are not getting enough to eat or enough sleep. The things you describe to me — the things you have to deal with as a combat medic — worry me greatly. A lady of your background should have no business tending to sound horrific wounds._

_Another thing I wish to bring up is that while your letter to me was indeed filled with the words of the sweet girl I fell in love with, I'm afraid you haven't been completely honest with me. I've gotten word from your parents that you write to them and your siblings about the men you spend your days with and I must admit, I do not enjoy the thought of you being around so many men for so long. Men like that, who go away to war for years at a time...it does something to them, Annie. You cannot trust them._

_Your parents tell me you ship out to Europe soon, so I'm afraid this may be my last chance to request you come home before it is too late. I miss you greatly, my dear, and feel it is time for you to return so we can move forward with our life together._

_Yours,_

_Steve Riddick_

 

Annie felt her blood begin to boil as she finished the letter, and with one quick motion, stuffed it back into her jacket pocket. How could the man who supposedly loved her actively be so rude and condescending? Annie loved Steve, she knew she did. They had never had problems before she had left, but then again, before she had left, Annie had been very unhappy. 

There, sitting in that tent with her company brothers and sister, she was truly happy. Was she supposed to choose between love and happiness? Was that really what Steve was asking her to do?

Annie, however, was not the only one who had read an upsetting letter that evening. Bill Guarnere, who was sitting two rows ahead, had pulled a letter addressed to John Martin out of his jacket pocket and read the contents. Little did he know that Martin had switched the jackets on purpose.

In the letter to Martin from his wife, Patricia, there was news that Guarnere's brother, Henry, had been killed in Monte Cassino, Italy. 

●●● 

On the morning of June 5th, 1944, Easy Company was once again back on the tarmac, geared up and covered in grease paint, hoping that this time, it would be the real deal. 

Walking over to Annie, Margot smiled at the small girl as she pulled at her straps, making sure each and every last one of them was tight enough. Since learning that the two of them would not be dropping in from the same plane, the taller woman had done nothing but worry. 

"You make sure everything's strapped on real good," Margot instructed even though she already knew the blonde knew it. "And be safe. Remember to land as smoothly as possible. And remember the code words." 

"Margot." Annie grabbed the green-eyed woman's nervous hands with her own. "We're gonna be just fine."

Margot forced a smile onto her face as Winters called her over to join her drop-group. "Yes, you're right." she nodded as she turned to leave. "We're gonna be fine."

"Hey," Annie called, causing her friend to stop in her tracks and turn back around. "I'll see you over there."

Margot's smile was genuine that time. "You bet."

As the two parted ways, each joining up with their individual drop-groups, they silently wished each other luck. 

Sitting on the tarmac with the packs on their backs providing support, the men, and woman, in front of Winters sat in two lines. Going down the line, Eugene Roe handed out air-sickness pills to everyone with the instructions to take one then and another after thirty minutes in the air. 

Turning to the troops in front of him, Winters addressed them. "2nd Platoon, listen up. Good luck. God bless you. I'll see you in the assembly area." 

With a nod, he then helped the troops stand one by one, giving them each a smile and a pat on the arm as he did so. 

Holding her hand out for Winters to grab, Margot let him help her stand before flashing a small smile. Following behind Toye, she slowly but surely, and with the help of the others, climbed into the plane. Before taking her seat though, she turned and looked back out the doorway and over to where her small, blonde friend was standing at the next plane over. 

As Annie handed out air-sickness pills to the men in her group, Margot watched and felt a warmth spread over her. She wasn't sure how, but she knew she was going to see that small medic again. 

Once everyone was inside and the door had been shut, the familiar sound and rumble of the plane's engines took over and Margot shut her eyes. When the plane began to move, she drew in a deep breath, and when it finally took off, she exhaled.

This was it. Over two years of hard work and training, here she was. Hours passed, day turned to night, and as the plane got closer and closer to the drop site, Margot could tell she was ready. She had studied the maps until her brain hurt, she knew the mission forward and backward, she had put in hours upon hours of training, and she had proved time and time again that she belonged there. 

Whatever waited for her in Normandy  _—_ whatever waited for her during her time at war  _—_ she was ready. She had to be.


	16. D-Day

All she could hear was the plane. Annie knew the men around her were talking because she could see their mouths moving, but all she could hear was the plane. It was a constant, loud rattling that shook her to the core; literally. 

She knew that conversation might help calm her nerves a little, but her mind was blank. The only thing she could focus on was how heavy all of her gear was. With the standard gear, plus her medic gear, she felt like she was carrying two more of herself on her back. She felt trapped to the seat because of all the weight and she worried that when it came to the jump she might not even be able to stand up again.

Turning her head to look out the open door, Annie forced herself to take a deep breath. Her mind went to Margot. Then to Luz. Then Malarkey. One by one she thought of the members of her company that weren't in her stick—her friends.

Hopefully, they would all make it. Hopefully, she would see then again.

When the red light beside the door turned on, Annie went into autopilot mode. She stood up when Lieutenant Compton instructed to and promptly clipped herself onto the main line, forgetting to even worry about the weight of her gear. She patted herself down for equipment check and then did the same to the man in front of her. 

When she felt the tap on her shoulder, followed by, "Six okay!", Annie's mouth opened and without even having to think, she blurted out, "Five okay!"

With a blast of light, the plane flew out of the clouds and into a sky full of action. Annie could see the other planes around her and she could see the explosions. She could see everything. When the plane shook violently due to a nearby blast, Annie's legs worked overtime to keep her from falling over.

Planes were being shot out of the sky, men were dying, and suddenly all Annie could think about was the obstacle course at Toccoa. So far, that had been the hardest thing she had ever had to complete.  _It's just another wall_ she told herself.  _Just another wall._

Another blast and she could hear a scream of agony behind her. "I'm hit!" Cobb cried as his knees buckled beneath him and his hands went to the area where he had been pierced with shrapnel. 

Then the light flashed green.

The first man jumped, then the second, the third, the fourth. Annie's head twisted back and forth, looking at Cobb and then the doorway. "Leave him!" Buck grabbed her and pushed her towards the exit before she could make up her mind for herself. 

Annie stood in the doorway, the wind whipping her face, the sounds of men screaming and planes exploding in her ears, and without another thought, she jumped.

The descent wasn't nearly as fun as the practice ones at Toccoa had been. In fact, it wasn't fun at all. She was surrounded by hundreds of other chutes, some carrying alive men, others carrying dead ones. Her eyes scanned for Margot hoping maybe she was among the alive ones, but she wasn't, and before Annie knew it she was staring at the quickly approaching ground. 

Annie's hands gripped the straps tight as she attempted to guide her landing as close to the treeline as possible, and with a gentle  _thud_ , she hit the Earth and collapsed into the tall grass. The large chute tugged at her back as the wind tried to carry it away, so she quickly unclipped her harness and shrugged it off of her body. 

Looking down, the first thing she noticed was the leg bag; or more accurately, the lack thereof. She had been right to not trust the flimsy bag with her important items. So, with a loss of food and some other extra supplies, Annie focused on her surroundings. 

Chutes continued to fall through the night sky as planes passed overhead. Hopefully, some of those chutes were Easy Company.

Turning back to the treeline, which was just a few meters away, Annie slowly crept through the waist tall grass and into the cover of the shadows. She was alone and she was pretty sure she had missed the drop zone by a lot, but as long as she kept her wits about her and paid attention to her surroundings, she was confident in her ability to locate a landmark and make her way to the assembly area. 

With a loud bang, Annie's heart skipped a beat and her hands went right to her small pistol. A few more loud shots and Annie had located a man a few feet away among the grass. He was lying on his stomach and firing at the paratroopers above. He was not a friendly. 

Drawing in a shaky breath, Annie waited until the man fired again and used the sound to mask her footsteps as she hurried away. After a while of slow, careful walking, Annie found herself emerging from the trees and coming up on a small dirt path. Her eyes scanned both directions, and when she spotted movement in the distance, she crouched down and prayed it wasn't a German. 

Annie's breathing slowed as she adjusted into a lying down position so the grass hid her better. The moving shadow in the distance got bigger, and it expanded, and it got louder, and eventually, Annie knew what it was. It wasn't  _a_  German. It was many Germans. 

Many Germans with two horse-drawn wagons. The soldiers talked happily among themselves as the wagons slowly passed Annie by, and with peeled eyes, she watched them. She watched for any sign that they might have noticed her, but thankfully, they didn't. 

The wagons continued on, went around a bend in the road, and then there was gunfire. Annie's hands tightened around her rifle as gunshots and screams echoed through the air. A chill ran up her spine when she heard the horses cry out in agony. 

Then everything went silent again. Annie knew that one way or another, there were Americans over there, because who else would have fired at the Germans? The only remaining question was, which group was still alive?

Slowly, Annie stood to her feet again and made her way to the bend in the road. She hated the fact that she couldn't see what was going on, so she listened carefully, hoping to hear anything that would give her an idea of what she was getting herself into. Then, a voice. An American, English speaking voice. Then more voices. 

Picking up the pace a little, Annie neared the bend. "Flash!" she called, her body still ready to jump into the brush for cover at a moment's notice. 

"Thunder!" the reply came, and the small blonde's heart rate slowed instantly. 

Continuing on, Annie followed the path and eventually came across the gruesome sight of the dead Germans and horses, their bodies littered with bullet holes. "Who is it?" a familiar voice asked.

A man stepped out of the shadows, and when his eyes landed on the small medic, he smiled wide. "It's Annie!" Malarkey announced. 

More men came into sight and Annie immediately recognized Winters, Guarnere, Toye, and Lipton. Her eyes scanned for Margot, but she wasn't with them. "Everyone okay?" Annie asked, her first priority to check on the men's well-being. "I've got bandages if anybody needs a patch-up."

"I think we're all okay." Winters placed his hand on the small girl's shoulder, relief spreading through him at the sight of her. He had been worried about the female medic most of all during the jump, but there she was, bright-eyed and eager to help like always. "Let's just keep moving. We've still got a lot of ground to cover."

Annie nodded as she inspected the group, noticing a few unfamiliar faces here and there. It was obvious they were from other regiments or companies because they looked at her as if they were seeing a woman for the first time ever, but Annie didn't pay them any mind and went back to making sure her men were okay.

Guarnere, who was obviously in a bad mood for a reason unknown to Annie, grumbled something under his breath as he stomped down the path. "What's that guy's problem?" one of the new guys asked.

"Gonorrhea," Malarkey answered.

The new guy's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"His name, dummy." Malarkey rolled his eyes. "Guarnere, Gonorrhea, get it?"

"So, besides having a shitty name what's his problem?"

Guarnere, who was kicking kraut bodies, glared at the new guy. He didn't need any of them questioning his state of mind because of what had happened to his brother. "None of your fucking business, Cowboy." he seethed. 

With that, Lipton gave the order to move out. Annie walked with the men through the rest of the night. Her feet ached, her shoulders were sore, and her mind was full of worried thoughts about Margot and the others that she had yet to meet up with. 

With the eventual sunrise came a beautiful orange and yellow sky. As the group walked past a small lake, the sound of the water and the insects breaking the otherwise dead silence, Annie felt herself begin to relax a little. 

Listening to Guarnere complain about something Winters had done, the small medic followed the men as they waded through knee-deep water. If she hadn't been at war, Annie was sure she would have stopped to enjoy the scenery a little. It baffled her how a terrible thing such as war would present her with some of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen. It had also presented her with some of the worst, but she chose not to focus on those. She knew she would have enough bad memories by the time all was said and done as it was. 

By mid-morning, the group reached a small farmhouse. Well, it  _had_  been a farmhouse before it had been blown to bits. Smoke drifted through the air over by where a truck was currently on fire and bodies were strewn all over the ground. 

After getting the all-clear from Lipton and Popeye, Annie moved in with the rest of the men. She did a quick sweep of the bodies, but none were alive. There was nothing she could do. 

Hanging from a tree, with his legs contorted and wrapped in the lines of his chute, a paratrooper's body swung back and forth gently. He had been dead a few hours at least by how pale his skin was, and even though it looked like he hadn't suffered much, Annie's heart still sunk for the man. 

"Anybody need supplies or ammo, now's the time to get it," Lipton informed everyone as he began to loot one of the bodies. 

As Malarkey went searching the dead Germans for a Luger to bring home to his brother, Annie fished through some of the packs to replenish the food and other items she had lost with her leg bag. As the small girl closed her pack back up, a plane flew overhead, the sound so loud it blocked out all other noises for a brief moment.

"It's the Navy," Lipton commented.

"The landings have started, let's go," Winters ordered as Guarnere and the new guy, Hall, went back and forth again some more. Annie wasn't quite sure what Hall had done to piss Guarnere off so bad in the first place, but whatever it was had stuck, and now Guarnere was picking on the guy every chance he got. 

A few hours later Annie and the men had made it to the assembly area; an old farm. Stepping over the pile of dead horses that were being used as a roadblock, Annie began to search again. They met up with a few other Easy Company members such as Liebgott and Buck, but there was no sign of the tall, raven-haired machine-gunner. 

"Have you seen Margot?" Annie asked as she lifted her helmet from her head. 

Liebgott shook his head as he took a puff of his cigarette. "Nope, sorry. Buck says ninety percent of the company are still unaccounted for. I'm sure she'll show up." 

Annie forced a small smile and a head nod. "Yeah, she'll show up," she repeated in hopes that it would sound more convincing coming from herself. 

While the men caught up with each other and swapped stories of their drop into Normandy, Lieutenant Winters began to hash out some details with Buck and Lieutenant Spiers of Dog Company. A lot of the men were missing, but the garrison mission was still scheduled. 

After Annie had shared her pretty uneventful story of making it through the forest and meeting up with Winters and the others, she headed over to the aid station so she could set up her stuff and assist the other medics with the various injuries.

"Ah, look who made it," Spina announced as soon as the female medic entered the old shed turned aid station. 

Throwing her pack down on the ground at her feet and letting out a sigh of relief, Annie smiled at the two other Easy medics. "Good to see you guys too." she greeted. "How's the damage?"

Eugene shrugged as he gestured around at the patients. "Not too bad." his Cajun accent stuck out like a sore thumb. "Mostly broken bones from the drop and minor wounds. We haven't seen anything too bad yet."

Annie nodded as she began digging through her medic bag for some supplies. "That's good to hear."

With explosions sounding every few minutes, Annie got to work at treating as many injuries as she could. With a soothing voice and a gentle touch, the small blonde found that most of her patient's pain would go away with a few deep breaths and some encouraging words. Mixed with the shock of having just dropped into enemy territory, the minor wounds of her patients were tending to seem a lot worse than they actually were. 

A few men came in asking if anyone had seen this guy or that guy, but every time Annie had to tell them 'no' and watch as their faces sank with concern. She knew the feeling. With every passing minute that she didn't hear Margot back-talking one of the men, she grew more agitated. 

"Private Winslow." a voice called through the aid station. Looking up, Annie made eye contact with Lieutenant Winters. "We're laying down the plan for the garrison ambush," he explained. "We need you."

Annie was confused for a second. "Me? Sir, are you sure?"

Winters nodded as he motioned for the blonde to follow him. "Easy Company only has thirteen troopers, including you. I can't lose any more men. I need you out there."

"Yes, sir." Annie began to follow the Lieutenant, stopping quickly on the way to let Eugene and Spina know she was leaving and filling them in on the statuses of her patients. 

Once all thirteen members of Easy Company had gathered, Winters went over the strategy. "The 88's we've been hearing have been spotted in a field, down the road aways." Winters drew a simple diagram of the area he was explaining. "Major Strayer wants us to take 'em out. There are two guns that we know of, firing on Utah Beach, and plan on a third and a fourth, here and here. The Germans are in the trenches, with access to the entire battery, with the machine-gun covering the rear. We'll establish a base of fire and move under it hard and fast with two squads of three."

"How many Krauts they think we're facing?" Guarnere asked.

Winters exhaled slowly. "No idea."

"No idea?" Guarnere cocked an eyebrow, clearly unsatisfied with the answer.

"We'll take some TNT along with us, to spike the guns." Winters continued, his gaze shifting from the diagram to Lipton. "Lipton, your responsibility."

Lipton nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Liebgott, you'll take the first machine gun with Petty, A gunner. Plesha, Hendrix, you take the other." Winters assigned positions, knowing full well the two people he _wanted_  to take the machine guns were still missing, forcing him to make do with what he had. "Who does that leave?"

Annie rose her hand along with others who had yet to be assigned a job. "Compton, Malarkey, Toye, Guarnere, Winslow. Okay." Winters looked to each of the troopers he had just named. "We'll be making the main assault. Remember Winslow, I need you looking after my men out there," he assured the small girl who looked more than a little uncertain. 

Annie nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good." he then looked to everyone else. "Understand?"

"Yes, sir." 


	17. Lady Luck

"Lipton, when you see we've captured the first gun, I want you and your TNT as fast as possible." Winters instructed as Easy Company prepared to head out and destroy the garrison. 

"Yes, sir."

Winters nodded as an explosion sounded in the distance; the ground shaking with it. "Okay, just weapons and ammo, drop everything else. Got any spare ammo in a pack or a musette bag, bring it along."

Annie stared down at all of her medical gear and found herself at a mental crossroads. Her superior had just ordered her to drop anything that wasn't a weapon or ammo, but as a medic, she was ordered to always have her supplies with her. "Sir," Annie spoke up as Winters approached her. "My medical gear. I...I'm supposed to have it with me at all times."

Winters' eyes scanned the bags strapped to the small girl's body. "Keep your stuff, Private Winslow," he told her. "A medic should always have their medical equipment."

Annie smiled as she began to dig through her musette bag for extra ammo. Being able to keep her gear meant that she could be helpful; at least in her eyes. Annie knew she wasn't the fastest, or the strongest, or even the best shooter, but she  _was_  one hell of a damn good medic. She could patch up a wound in the blink of an eye and predict complications before they even had the chance to become a complication. 

Everyone had their thing; being a medic was hers.

"Lieutenant, sir?" another new guy joined the gathered group of Easy Company. "I was wondering, sir, you need an extra hand?"

Toye, who had overheard the young man requesting to accompany them on the mission, turned to him. "Ain't you Sink's jeep driver?"

"So?" Hall questioned.

Annie let out a heavy sigh. She knew the abilities of the men in Easy Company and she knew that more often than not, they weren't going to be requiring her services as a medic. A young kid with his top experience being a jeep driver on the other hand? That spelled disaster. 

"What's your name, trooper?" Winters looked to the eager kid. He knew the men of Easy weren't too keen on outsiders, but he was also painfully aware of how small their numbers were. 

"Lorraine, sir," he answered.

"You're with me, Lorainne," Winters accepted the jeep driver's help as he picked up his rifle. "Compton, second squad."

Buck smiled as he smacked a magazine into the more heavy-duty automatic weapon he was holding. "Yes, sir."

With another layer of black grease paint on their faces, Easy Company set out towards the ever-firing garrison. Following closely, Annie hovered her hand over her pistol and watched Winters' every move. 

Breaking ahead to the front of the pack, Winters, Lipton, and Compton all approached the treeline to scout out the area on the other side. The firing was louder now and every once in a while a German voice would yell something that, out of all of them, only Liebgott could understand.

Sending Liebgott and Petty out to their positions, Winters and Compton moved forward some more down the cover of the trees to plan the main attack. Heading left, Compton would take Guarnere and Malarkey, and heading right, Lipton would take Ranney to give some covering fire. Lorraine was put on the machine gun. 

When the first of the bullets from their side rang out, alerting the Germans to their presence, Winters turned to the small medic, whom he had every confidence in, and gave her a reassuring nod. "Stick with me, Private," he instructed.

"Yes, sir," Annie felt a wave of confidence rush through her. If her Lieutenant trusted her, then she could trust herself.

Pressing her body as deep into the brush as she could, Annie followed her Lieutenant's lead as they waited for Buck and his team to take out the first gun from the left side. When the three grenades had gone off and Buck, Guarnere, and Malarkey had rushed into the trenches, Winters gave the signal.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" he called as he rushed out of cover and towards the first gun. "Follow me!"

Flying out from the bushes, Annie let her little legs take her as fast as they could. Dirt flew up all around her from where the bullets had pierced the Earth just inches away from her feet, but she didn't stop for a second. Once she reached the trenches, she jumped in and crouched as far down as she could. 

"Oh, fuck!" Popeye cried out as he collapsed onto the grass just beside the trenches. "It just got my ass!  I'm sorry, sir."

Jumping up, Annie grabbed hold of Popeye's uniform and pulled him into the trenches with her. While the injured man in front of her continued to apologize over and over again for getting hit, the young medic went straight to action. 

"You're gonna be okay, Popeye," she assured him as she reached into her bag and pulled out some sulfa and a bandage. Using her left hand to place the bandage over the gunshot in Popeye's rear end, she applied firm pressure as she ripped the sulfa open with her teeth. 

Jumping down to assist in any way he could, Toye looked to the small medic for confirmation. "He's gonna be just fine." Annie lifted the bandage and poured the sulfa into the wound. "There aren't any major arteries in your butt, Popeye." she tried to keep the tone light as she worked at controlling the bleeding and bandaging the wound up. "Just a lot of fat."

"Little lady, are you saying I have a fat butt?" Popeye managed to choke out in between screams of pain and apology. 

Before Annie could even respond, something landed right beside her, Toye, and the injured Popeye. "Grenade!" Winters yelled. "Joe, Annie, roll on!"

Without even thinking, both Annie and Joe threw themselves over Popeye to protect him from the blast. With a deafening explosion, the grenade showered them in dirt and forced them down harder on the already wounded man.

"Ah!" Popeye cried out as Annie and Joe pushed themselves off of the poor man. Checking themselves over, they were both surprised to find they didn't even have a scratch. 

"You good?" Annie asked Joe.

Joe gave himself another once-over before nodding. "Yeah, I'm good."

"You are some lucky bastards!" Guarnere called out before popping up out of the trench again and firing a few more shots into the groups of Germans.

With the sound of Winters barking orders in the background, Annie went back to work at securing the bandage around Popeye's butt as quickly as possible. "Deep breath," she instructed as she pulled the bandage tight with a hard tug. 

Running over, Buck crouched down beside the three as he reloaded his weapon. "Where ya hit, Pop?" he inquired.

Popeye shook his head in embarrassment. "I can't believe I fucked up my ass, sir." 

A look of sympathy and slight amusement passed through Buck's bright blue eyes for a moment. "Your ass?"

"He's going to be okay," Annie spoke quickly, her hands not slowing for a moment as she wrapped the bandage around Popeye's upper thigh one last time to secure it.

"Hey, Popeye, how bad is it?" Winters joined the party next. Suddenly, there were four people surrounding one man with a minor gunshot wound. Normally, no gunshot wound would be considered 'minor'. But this was war. In some cases, missing appendages were minor.

Annie looked to the two men as she finished up her job. "With all due respect, Lieutenants." she eyed both Buck and Winters. "I've got this. He's going to be just fine. I'm sure your presence is needed elsewhere right now."

Winters smirked at the small girl in front of him. Minutes before she had been nervous and unsure of herself, but in the blink of an eye she had transformed into the combat medic that he knew was inside of her. 

With a small nod, Winters helped Buck and Annie lift Popeye up and out of the trenches so he could make his way back to the assembly area. Spinning back around, Buck spotted Germans heading their way and pulled out a grenade. "Winters, one-o'clock!" he warned, pulling the pin and getting ready to throw the explosive.

With another blast from somewhere else, the Earth shook and Buck lost his grip on the grenade. His hands fumbled with the explosive, but in the end, it slipped from his hands and onto the ground at his feet. "Grenade!" he belted out as he jumped out of the trench. "Toye, Winslow, let's go! Get out of there!"

While Winters and Buck made it out of the trench in time, Joe and Annie did not. With their second grenade blast of the day, the two were bounced off of the trench walls like rubber balls, their faces, eyes, ears, and mouth once again filled with dirt. 

"Toye!" Buck screamed, fearing the worst for the two that hadn't made it out. "Winslow!"

Annie let out a cough before spitting the mouthful of dirt out beside her. Looking over to Joe, concern spread through her as the man slowly sat up, his eyes screwed shut because of the dirt. "Jesus Christ!" he groaned as Buck and Winters jumped down. "Fucking twice."

"Winslow, you okay?" Winters checked to make sure the female medic was still unharmed. 

Annie nodded before shaking her head like a wet dog to dislodge the dirt and debris from her hair and ears. "Never better." she dug her fingertips into the dirt as she pushed herself back up into a standing position. 

"Good." Winters gave her a hardy pat on the back before taking off again.

Walking over to Toye, who she could tell had the same ringing in his ears that she did, Annie outstretched her hand and helped the man up. "Lady luck is with us today," she commented. 

Pulling herself together, Annie moved through the trenches with her head down. The men had managed to capture the first gun, so a larger portion of the area was safe to move through. The Germans at the second gun, however, were not keen on giving up any more of their space to the Americans. 

Catching up with Winters, Buck, and Toye, Annie listened in on the plan so she would know where to go and what to do. "There's the second gun." Winters peered over the trench. "Grenades first. Then keep going. Go!"

Moving up, the three men and one woman stopped a few meters short of the second gun, just out of sight. Grabbing a grenade from Toye's person, Annie took a deep breath and got ready to pull her pin with her other hand. 

Looking back, Winters made sure the three behind him were ready, and with a small nod, he led the way. On Winters's command, Buck, Toye, and Annie pulled the pins on their grenades and tossed them into the dug-out of the second gun. The three explosions went off and the four troopers stormed the second gun. 

As a German soldier rushed Annie, his gun pointed right at her, she quickly grabbed her pistol off of her belt, aimed, and pulled the trigger. Even though she had been so close that missing would have been almost impossible, Annie was still a little surprised when the man doubled over and collapsed to the ground, his hands soaked with blood as they tried covering the bullet wound in his abdomen. 

The German screamed in pain, but by then there was no one around to help him. Aiming her pistol once again, Annie pulled the trigger a second time, this time shooting the soldier in the head to end his suffering. 

Her hands shook slightly afterward. She had just taken her first life. It was a weird concept to the blonde medic that while she was trained in saving lives, she was also expected to take them. 

"Nicht schieben!" the last German alive at the second gun cried, his hands above his head in surrender. "Bitte, nicht schieben!"

"Shut up!" Toye shoved the barrel of his gun directly into the terrified man's face. "Shut the fuck up!"

As Annie spun around, the yelling pulling her from her thoughts, she watched as Joe wound up and punched the soldier square in the jaw. With a bone-chilling  _crack_ , the German fell backward, his body still. 

Annie looked to Joe, then down to his hands, then to the brass knuckles. She didn't say a word, but the look in her eyes spoke wonders. Joe flashed a sheepish smile.

"We must be doing something right." Winters announced as he and the others crouched behind the second gun for cover. "Look, we've got 'em so confused their firing on the third gun."

Annie watched as the German machine-gun fired over and over at the still German-occupied third gun. A smirk played at the corners of her mouth. That was a sight that Margot would have loved to see. 

"We better blow this thing before they figure out what the hell's happening." Buck laughed.

Winters turned back around to the trenches and let out a sigh. "I'm gonna go and see what's keeping Lipton," he said before getting up and heading out to find out where his damn TNT was. With Toye providing covering fire, Winters was soon out of sight.

Turning her attention back to the action in front of her, Annie's eyes widened as she watched what looked like Malarkey running out into the middle of the wide-open field. For a second she was frozen. What the hell was he doing?

However, much to her surprise, the German firing stopped as Malarkey fell to the ground right next to a dead Kraut. While his hands frantically searched the body, most likely looking for a Luger, the Germans had thought he was a medic. 

"Malarkey, what in the hell are you doing?!" Annie shouted across the field, her voice drawing the attention of Petty, Liebgott, and Guarnere, who were muttering under their breaths about the stupid stunt themselves.

Annie's eyes shifted back and forth from Malarkey to the German machine gun. Sooner or later, they were going to figure out he wasn't a medic, or that he wasn't one of them, and start firing again. "Malarkey!" Annie felt the heat begin to rise in her face at the pure stupidity. "I swear to God if you get shot and make me come out there and get you, you will never hear the end of it!"

In a quick motion, Malarkey pushed himself up off of the ground again and darted back for cover. The firing started again and as he moved into a zig-zag pattern, Annie watched with bated breath as he just barely made it. 

While Winters made it back to the second gun where Guarnere, Malarkey, Petty, Liebgott, Plesha, Hendrix, and Hall were all waiting for Lipton and the TNT, Annie stayed put with Toye and Compton at the second gun where they took out as many Germans at the third gun as they could.

"Fire in the hole!" Winters shouted before a small, contained explosion took out the barrel of the gun, rendering it useless. 

In a matter of minutes, Winters made it back to the second gun with Hall and Malarkey on his heels. After hashing out who had ammo and who didn't, Buck took off with Malarkey and Toye to take out the third gun. Dropping his TNT so the second gun could be destroyed, Hall ran after the other three to provide some assistance.

Annie stayed behind to help with the second gun, and after stuffing the TNT into the barrel and setting it off with a flare, there was yet another out of commission gun in the German garrison. At the third gun, Buck gave the 'all-clear' and signaled for Winters to head on over with the TNT.

Grabbing the bad of explosives from the ground, Annie followed Winters through the trenches. Entering a small, covered area, both troopers stopped in their tracks. Lying on the ground with blood seeping from his nose and ears, Hall was dead. Annie guessed it must have been a rigged explosive, and by the obvious symptoms, he had suffered major internal damage and was dead on impact. 

Winters leaned down next to the boy and took a moment to silently bid him farewell. He had been brave by volunteering to go on the mission when all he was expected to do was drive a jeep, and he had proved useful when he supplied the much needed TNT when Lipton was nowhere to be seen. He had died young, but he had died a hero.

As another loud burst of gunfire echoed through the air, Annie and Winters continued on their way. Coming across what looked like a small, makeshift headquarters, Winters made a quick detour. With a crackling radio playing German voices in the background, Winters rummaged through the papers on the desk and picked up a map. After one quick glance at what appeared to be locations for other German guns in the area, he stuffed the paper into his coat and motioned for Annie to follow him the rest of the way to gun three.

As Winters and Annie joined Buck, Malarkey, and Toye, Lieutenant Speirs came out of nowhere with a few of his men and dropped down into the dug-out. "Winters, Hester said you needed ammo!" he announced, gesturing to the straps of bullets hanging around his neck like jewelry. 

"Malarkey!" Winters called over the men to restock. "As much as you can, everyone!"

"You mind if D Company takes a shot at the next gun?" Spiers asked; eager to get into the action.

Winters looked to the fourth gun and shrugged. He had had enough action for one day himself. "All yours!"

"Let's go Dog Company!" Spiers jumped up and rushed the final gun with his men. 

As the Germans rushed to meet Dog Company halfway, Spiers lept out of the trench, ran around the German soldiers, jumped back in, and pretty much single-handedly took the fourth gun. With the 'all-clear' from Spiers, Lipton sank down next to Annie and Winters and pulled out his TNT. "Sir, had a little trouble getting it through that first field."

Following Winters's gaze, Lipton looked up at the already smoking gun and huffed. "Oh, Christ." he gasped for breath after having sprinted all the way there from the first gun. 

"They're gonna need it at the next gun," Winters told him. "Once it's blown, tell 'em to pull out. Go!"

As Lipton ran off to deliver the TNT to the third gun, Winters and Annie ran back through the tranches to the first gun, telling people to pull out along the way. With a little covering fire to give them some time to escape, Easy Company crawled out of the trenches and headed back to Battalion. 

As Annie bolted back through the treeline and into relative safety, a feeling of pride spread through her. Not only had she made it out alive, but she had done her job under pressure, kept calm, and assisted in the successful destroying of the German garrison. 

Back at the farm, Annie headed straight to the aid station to check on Popeye. While she knew the man was going to most likely recover fully from his injury, she also knew he had been a little freaked out in the field because of it. 

When the man with the bullet in his butt spotted the small medic, his face lit up. "Hiya, little lady." he greeted her. "Thank you for patching me up out there. Doc Roe here says you did a fine job."

Annie chuckled slightly as she turned to look at Eugene. With a smile, the Cajun medic confirmed that he had indeed said those things before returning to his own patient. 

With a few more encouraging words, Annie helped load Popeye onto a stretcher and got him a ride to the hospital where he would have the bullet removed and be given time to recover. Once the bashful man was on his way, Annie continued to work into the night, helping the other medics tend to the remaining wounds of the day. 

Eventually, Eugene and Spina told her to call it a night and get some food. With the growl from her stomach fully audible, the blonde couldn't deny that she was starving and took leave for the evening. 

 


	18. Adrenaline

Covered in dirt, dust, blood, and God knows what else, Annie wandered through the assembly area and drew in a deep breath of the night air. Her stomach let out another loud grumble and she knew that her first priority should be food, but with the excitement for the day dying down, she couldn't help but focus all of her energy into worrying about the Easy Company troopers who had yet to show up.

George Luz, Frank Perconte, Smokey Gordon, Bull Randleman...Margot Kessler. So many were all still missing, and for every minute that they didn't arrive, Annie knew there was a bigger chance that they never would. 

She had been lucky to have met up with other Easy members so soon after the drop, but what if Margot hadn't met up with anyone at all? What if she was out there alone? What if she had died alone? 

Annie had thought that out of the two of them, it would have been Margot who would have made it back to the assembly area first and helped take down the German garrison; not her. Annie missed her friend. Sure, she got along well with the guys just as much as they did with each other at that point, but she wanted nothing more than to sit down and have a conversation with her tall, raven-haired, witty friend. 

"Jesus!" Annie heard a familiar voice and looked up to see Liebgott climbing out of the back of one of the trucks. Hearing a few of the other Easy voices follow him, she made her way over, stuck her head over the back of the truck, and closed the flap behind her in order to keep the light discipline that was in effect. 

"Hey, little lady." Guarnere greeted her when he saw her. "You want some food?"

Annie took one sniff and nearly gagged. "Is that what that's supposed to be?" she laughed, suddenly understanding why Liebgott had cut and run when he had the chance. 

"Don't knock it 'till you try it." Malarkey, the chef, tutted his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he began to serve up the sludge that he had been cooking over the small fire in the back of the truck.

Buck furrowed his brows as Malarkey dumped the food into his bowl. "What the hell do you know about cooking, Malarkey?" he asked. "You're Irish."

"Sir, if you have a reservation someplace else, I'd be happy to go with you." Malarkey finished serving the men before picking up an extra bowl and turning to Annie. "You want some?"

Annie held her hands up and shook her head. The smell had turned her appetite away quicker than she thought even possible. "No thanks." she politely declined as Guarnere stuck his head out to get a breath of fresh air. 

Feeling the flap move behind her, Annie moved to the side to allow Winters to stand beside her. "Good evening," his face scrunched up in disgust after one smell of whatever it was that Malarkey had made. "Something die in here?"

"Yeah, Malarkey's ass." Petty cracked. 

As a few of the men broke out into laughter, Buck shifted to look down at Winters. "Any word on Lieutenant Meehan yet, sir?"

"No, not yet." Winters sighed as he fiddled with his fingers. 

"Don't that make you our commanding officer, sir?" Guarnere cocked a brow; his once annoyance with the Lieutenant having dissipated. 

Winters looked up at Guarnere, his lips stretched into a straight line. "Yeah, it does."

Leaning forward, Toye offered the bottle in his hand to Winters. The Lieutenant was known for his teetotalism, which meant he never drank or smoke. However, on that night, he decided that it was a day of firsts, and took a swig of the alcohol. Handing the bottle back, Winters turned to leave but stopped short. "Oh, Sergeant." he glanced to Guarnere. "I'm not a Quaker."

With that, Winters left and the truck burst out into laughter. "If he's from Lancaster County, he's probably a Mennonite." Guarnere cackled before taking a puff of his cigarette. 

As a conversation of what a Mennonite looked like broke out, Annie looked up and Toye and smiled. "Still doing okay after those two grenade blasts?" she inquired.

Joe nodded and outstretched the bottle to her, but unlike Winters, she refused. He could tell the girl was troubled, probably still worrying about Margot, so with a shove of the guy next to him, he made some room for the girl in the truck and helped her climb in. 

Before long Annie had been looped into telling the men about her little brother Timothy and how in his letters he wrote about how he wanted to be like the men in Easy Company. With every laugh and every smile, her concern faded away. 

●●● 

By the next morning, more members of Easy Company had made it to the farm — Perconte, Martin, Luz, and Dukeman being just a few. 

Sitting on the steps of a war memorial with the men, Annie let the little bit of sun that poked through the clouds that day warm her skin. If it weren't for the gunshots and never-ending explosions, she was sure she could have closed her eyes and taken a nap right there. 

Beside her was Luz, and as he quietly hummed a tune she didn't know, she listened intently and kept her eyes peeled for the one face she wanted to see. 

"Hey, fellas." a known voice called. Perking up when Luz stood to greet the new arrivals, Annie spotted Talbert, Blithe, Shifty, and Smokey. 

While Liebgott showed off a Nazi banner he had found to Talbert, Annie rushed over to Smokey. "Gordon!" she tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Have you seen Margot? Was she out there?"

Smokey's eyes scanned the Easy Company group. "No." he shook his head. "She's not here?"

"No."

Smokey let out a laugh that confused Annie. "And she said I'd be the one to mess up the drop." he chuckled before turning and starting up a conversation with Luz. 

Annie felt her worry turn to anger at the man's clear disconcern for the whereabouts of his partner. As she tried to focus her nervous energy into asking some of the other incoming arrivals about the missing girl, she almost completely missed the very face she had been searching for in the crowd.

Margot's entire body ached something fierce, she was thirsty, she was hungry, and she was exhausted. However, all of that melted away when she spotted the men of Easy Company lounging around in the sun, enjoying their day. 

Coming to a full stop, Magot breathed in what felt like her first breath of fresh air in days and smiled. "Hiya boys!" she waved, immediately regretting it when the pain of lifting her arm shot through her side. 

Heads spun, conversations stopped, jaws dropped. Annie's heart skipped a beat when she heard the voice, and after pushing her way through the group of men, she could barely believe her eyes. There, standing a few feet away, was Margot. Or, at least, she thought it was Margot. The trooper before her looked like hell; they were missing their helmet, their ODs were torn, they were caked in dirt, and most worrying of all, they were covered in blood. 

"Margot?" she choked out, her voice dry and raspy. "Is that you?"

Dropping her gear to the ground beside her and wincing in pain, Margot held her arms out as wide as she could. "The one and only." she forced the biggest smile she could in hopes to not let on just how much pain she was really in. 

Quite a few of the men jumped to their feet and stormed the girl; questions flying all the while. 'Where were you?' 'What happened?' 'Is that your blood?' 'Are you okay?'

Annie just stood frozen. She couldn't believe her eyes. While she had kept telling herself that Margot was fine and that she would eventually turn up, a part of her deep down had begun to actually believe she was dead. A part of her had already started to say goodbye. 

Feeling a pair of arms wrap around her waist, Margot yelped in pain and jumped back. Luz, who had tried to sneak up on the girl and surprise her with a hug, jumped back as well. His eyes drifted down to the patch of dried and still wet blood on the machine-gunner's uniform. Then he looked to his hands. They were red. 

When Annie saw the exchange go down, she snapped out of her trance and rushed over. "Move!" she pushed the guys out of the way before grabbing Margot's arm and leading her over to the monument. "Here, sit down."

Margot chuckled slightly at her friend's overprotective nature but stopped short when she realized it also hurt to laugh. "Missed you too." Margot kept the mood light, like always. Annie smiled. 

With Easy Company gathered around, about twenty pairs of eyes watched as Annie lifted Margot's jacket, shirt, and undershirt out of the way, revealing a quite large and still bleeding gash on her ribcage. A few gasps could be heard.

"Oh, it's not that bad." Margot's face scrunched in discomfort as she shifted slightly. 

"What happened?" Guarnere asked. 

Margot waved her hand as if it were no big deal. "I just ended up dropping into the wrong zone, is all," she explained, purposely leaving out the parts about being surrounded by Germans, being slashed across the side with a bayonet, fighting for her life, and barely having the strength to make it to the assembly area. 

"We all dropped into the wrong zone." Perconte folded his arms across his chest as he stared at the wound on her side. "None of us look as bad as you. No offense."

"None taken." Margot flinched when Annie pulled out a package of sulfa and poured it into the wound. 

Annie felt a tinge of guilt spread through her because of the pain she was putting her friend through, but she also knew that if the wound wasn't tended to as soon as possible, there was a high chance it could become infected and cause a lot more trouble than necessary. 

After pressing a bandage firmly over the large gash and securing it in place as best she could, Annie looked up at Guarnere and Toye. "Guys, help me get her to the aid station, will you?"

Margot immediately shook her head and attempted to stand. "No, no, I can get to the aid station myself." she tried to insist, but the way her legs wobbled beneath her weight wasn't convincing anyone. 

Flanking the injured girl from both sides, Guarnere and Toye wrapped their arms around Margot and began walking her to the old shed turned medic-station. "Okay, maybe a little help is good." the tall, toned machine-gunner admitted as she took slow steps in between the two men who were holding up about fifty percent of her weight. 

With Annie rushing ahead to get a spot ready for her friend, Margot listened as the men told her about the garrison mission they had gone on the day before. Margot felt a little saddened that her Company had already gone on a mission without her, but by the sounds of it, she wasn't the only one who missed it, so that brought her some comfort. 

Approximately halfway to the aid station, Margot's vision began to blur and she felt extremely weak all of a sudden. She tried her hardest to focus on her friends' voices and stay lucid, but she was fading fast. The pain was becoming unbearable and she could feel the sweat gathering on her neck, back, and palms.

"Guys." she managed to mumble out. 

Guarnere and Toye paused the story they were telling and looked down at the girl in between them. "Yeah?" Guarnere asked.

Margot swallowed hard as she stumbled over her own feet. "My adrenaline is wearing off." 

Toye cocked a brow. "Yeah?"

"I'm gonna pass out," she warned them seconds before becoming nothing but dead weight in their arms. Both the men stopped dead in their tracks and moved to catch the woman before she dropped to the ground.

"Ah, shit," Toye grumbled as he scooped the girl into his arms. "Go ahead and let the medics know what happened," he told Guarnere. "I'll bring her in."

With a quick nod, Guarnere booked it towards the aid station. Following behind, but not moving quite as quickly, Toye looked down at the sickly woman in his arms and noticed how pale her face had gotten and how slicked back her hair was with sweat. If an infection had already set in and this was a fever, the girl was going to be heading home before she even got to experience war. 

At least, that's how Joe Toye saw it. But little did he or anyone else know, that girl had already experienced enough war to last a lifetime and it had only been a day and a half. 

●●● 

When Margot woke some hours later, she was lying on the top of some old workbench, with a thin blanket draped over her, in what looked like, to her best guess, a large farm equipment shed. 

She vaguely remembered what had happened  — recalling arriving at the farm, seeing the boys, feeling pain, but not much after that. All that mattered to her, though, was that she was with her company again. 

"You're up." Eugene looked up from where he had been sitting and walked over. "How are you feeling?"

Margot shifted slightly, feeling the pain throb in her side all over again. "Been better." she shrugged, suddenly feeling very warm and pushing the blanket off of her. "It's very hot in here."

Eugene sighed as he placed the back of his hand to her forehead. "It could just be a symptom of the blood loss," he informed her. "Or it could be an infection."

Margot processed the information carefully as her eyes scanned the room. She spotted other patients, a few other medics, but none were the person she was looking for. "Where's Annie?"

"She's out with the others. Easy is moving out." the Cajun medic told her as he carefully lifted her shirt so he could check on her wound. "Annie wanted to stay with you, but I told her to go. I told her I would make sure you got to the hospital okay."

Margot scoffed as she swung her legs over the side of the workbench. "Hospital?" she stared at the medic as if he were crazy. "No way! Wherever Easy goes, I go."

"Corporal Kessler." Roe stood in front of her, blocking her path to the exit. "Your wound is very serious, and if it's not treated properly, it could get a lot worse. It needs to be carefully debrided and closed up or else it could get infected."

Margot paused for a moment before reaching down, lifting up her shirt, removing the bandage from her side, and gesturing dramatically to the gash. "Then clean it up and close it up, doc; and do it fast."

Eugene shook his head. "I can't do it," he told her flatly. "You need to go to a hospital."

"If you can't do it, then I guess it's not getting done." Margot pushed past the medic and walked over to the table of medical supplies. Grabbing a bottle of some sort of disinfectant, she carefully poured some in the wound, wincing slightly as it stung but making sure she didn't use too much. Then, she picked up a new bandage, removed the wrapping, and stuck it over the newly disinfected cut. "That'll have to do it." she began tucking her shirt back into her pants.

Eugene tried to stop the woman, he really did, but she was dead-set on being where Easy Company was and there was nothing or no one that could deter her. "You coming, doc?" she called him by his nickname as she grabbed her jacket and her gun and stepped out of the aid station. 

With a sigh, he grabbed his stuff and followed suit. If she wasn't staying, then there really wasn't any reason for him to either. 

Pushing her way through the crowd, Margot joined up with Easy Company just in time to catch Lieutenant Welsh's spiel. "Listen up!" he addressed the men and women in front of him. "It'll be dark soon. I want light and noise discipline from here on. No talking, no smoking. And no playing grab-fanny with the man in front of you, Luz."

Annie, who was standing beside George, shot him a look as a small giggle escaped her lips. She was about to tease him about the little games he liked to play but stopped when she saw Margot out of the corner of her eye. 

"So, where we headed to Lieutenant, huh?" one of the men asked.

"We're taking Carentan," Welsh answered. "It's the only place where armor from Omaha and Utah Beach can link up and head inland. Until we take Carentan, they're stuck on the sand. General Taylor's sending the whole division."

Luz scoffed. "Remember, boys..." he dropped into his General Taylor impression. "Give me three days and three nights of hard fighting and you will be relieved." 

As Hoobler offered to be lead scout, Annie turned to Eugene and glared at him. "What is she doing here?" she jabbed her thumb back at where Margot was standing. "You said you were gonna make sure she got to the hospital."

"I tried, Annie, I did," Eugene explained as the brown eyes of the small medic stared daggers at him. "She refused. I couldn't force her."

"1st Platoon, fall in behind Fox Company," Welsh told his platoon. "You people from 2nd and 3rd Platoon, follow us. Let's shake a leg."

Margot, who had just managed to push her way through the crowd to settle into pace beside Toye and Guarnere, let out a small grumble as the pain in her side flared up. "What in God's name are you doin' here?" Guarnere furrowed his brows at the woman. 

"What does it look like?" Margot retorted. "You guys seen Smokey? I gotta let him know I'm here." Joe was about to open his mouth to protest, but the girl spotted her machine-gunner partner among the men and took off before he could. 

"Another thing to remember, boys..." Luz kept up his impression as the three platoons of Easy headed out. "Flies spread disease. So, keep yours closed."


	19. Carentan

Margot's eyes widened as she and the rest of Easy Company came upon a lake on fire. It sounded like something that could only occur in nightmares, but there it was. Flames climbed high into the air around the lake and even some parts in the lake where the flaming debris had landed in the water. 

Vehicles were abandoned, weapons were discarded, and bodies had been left to decay and rot. It truly was a war zone. 

As the company came to a halt and word spread that they had yet again lost Fox Company, Margot took the much-needed break to let the pain die down a little and re-adjust the bandage over her wound. The machine-gunner could feel eyes watching her as she tended to the cut on her ribcage; the eyes of Annie and Eugene. She knew the medics were only trying to do their job, but so was she. Her job was to fight with her company and that was what she was doing.

"You doing okay with everything?" Smokey approached his partner and gestured to the tripod, extra ammo, and gun barrels. 

Margot nodded as she carefully lowered herself onto the ground to take a seat. The last few times they had lost Fox Company it had taken a little bit to locate them again, so everyone took the breaks where they could and rested their legs.

A few feet away from the men, Welsh, Nixon, and Winters talked among themselves about the problems that arose when officers crapped out on their training. The Lieutenants were clearly more than tired of losing their brother company over and over again in the middle of the night in enemy territory. 

Annie, who had been silently creeping around Margot for the past five minutes or so, eventually decided to sit down next to her friend and confront her about her injury. "I thought you were gonna pace all night," Margot commented; she knew who had sat down next to her without even having to look.

"I'm worried about you," Annie admitted as she began to rummage around in her medic bag. "Please, at least just let me change the bandage."

Margot shook her head in refusal. "No, save your supplies for when someone really needs them."

"Margot, I know you don't want to hear this, but  _you_  really need them." Annie tried with everything she had to convince her friend that her injury was serious.

"Annie, please." Margot held her friends' rapidly moving hands in place and looked her right in the eyes. "I'm fine. Please believe me when I say I'm fine. The pain is already less."

Annie exhaled and pulled her hands back. "You passed out."

"I was exhausted." Margot contributed her fainting spell to the numerous other possible reasons. "I was thirsty. I was hungry. In case you weren't aware, my drop didn't go as smoothly as some others' did."

"What happened out there?" the young medic questioned.

Margot's stare drifted off somewhere far, far away from where she actually was. "I did what I had to do."

●●● 

When Easy and Fox Company finally arrived at Carentan, France on D-Day plus six, the place looked deserted. The faint squeaking of a swinging sign echoed through the air and somewhere in the distance, a dog was barking. 

Turning to Welsh, Winters laid out the plan. "I want you to take 1st straight up the middle, hard and fast. We have to move quickly. I'll be right behind you with 2nd and 3rd."

Moving up the road aways so his head just poked up and over the hill in the gravel road, Winters scanned Carentan one last time, his eyes settling on a small cafe. Behind him, Easy Company waited patiently for their commands. 

When Winters gave the order, Welsh waved for 1st Platoon to follow him and began to run up and over the road into the town. 1st jumped into action, Luz taking his place as radioman right behind Lieutenant Welsh. 

As 1st approached the town, gunfire rang out and the two men behind Luz collapsed to the ground. Turning to the sides, the rest of the troops jumped into the ditches for cover. With Welsh and Luz alone in the German-occupied town all by themselves, the rest of Easy stayed crouched in the ditches, hoping the flying bullets wouldn't reach them. 

Annie, who was stuffed between two men, held her arms close to her chest as a bullet landed inches away from her face. Strayer was yelling at the men to keep moving, as was Winters, but the gunfire had the company pinned down with nowhere to go. 

"Kessler, Gordon!" Winters called to the two machine-gunners. Once he had their attention, he used his hands to explain that he wanted them to move up as far as possible and take out the snipers in the windows. 

Knowing that the men would have no chance of entering the town without at least a small break in the raining bullets, Margot and Smokey quickly pushed past their fellow company members, remembering to keep their heads low as they did. 

After finding a good spot to set up, Margot grabbed the tripod from her back and slammed it down into the ground. Dropping to his knees, Smokey secured the gun to the tripod and loaded it as soon as Margot handed him the ammo. 

Once the gun was set up, both troopers laid down on their stomachs and waited for the gunfire to give away the positions of the Germans. Margot's eyes darted around the town as she waited. She could hear her heart beat in her ears. 

Another round of bullets and Margot had pinpointed a German in the upstairs window of the cafe. "Cafe, second story, first window on the right," she instructed. Adjusting the gun, Smokey took aim and fired a few dozen bullets into the building while his partner fed the bullets into the gun to make sure they didn't jam. 

When the action from the cafe ceased, Margot waited again. More gunfire, another German. "Red building, first floor, small window." Margot pointed with her finger. 

Smokey listened, aimed, and fired. After a few more rounds, and with the help of a few more machine-gunner teams, the gunfire had died down enough for Winters and Buck to herd Easy Company into the town. 

Following closely behind Lipton, Annie kept her head on a swivel as she entered the town with the rest of 2nd Platoon. Holding his hand up, Lipton pressed his back against the wall of the closest building and peaked around the corner to get an idea of where the remaining Germans were.

"There's one in the right upper win-" one of the men started to tell Lipton, but was shot before he could even finish his sentence. 

"Medic!" someone called out of habit even though Annie was right there. 

Reaching out, Annie quickly pulled the man's body back into cover and began to inspect his wound. Thankfully, he had only been shot in the shoulder. "Stay with me," Annie told the man who had gone into complete and utter shock in a matter of seconds. "This isn't too bad. Nothing a little bandaging won't help."

Annie's gentle, soothing words flowed out of her mouth as she picked out a few pieces of debris from the wound, poured in a package of sulfa, and bandaged it up. "Alright, now you stay here until it's safe and we have an aid station set up," she told the man. "Do you understand me?"

With a slow nod, the man confirmed that he understood. "Do you need some morphine for the pain?" she asked. 

"Save it." he croaked as he shook his head. 

When Annie looked back up and re-joined the war around her, she spotted Welsh making a B-line directly down the middle of the street. Pulling the pin on the grenade in his hand, Welsh tossed the explosive into the open window where the German machine-gunner was hiding out and ducked below.

"Guarnere, clear that sector on the right!" Lipton ordered once the grenade had gone off and taken out the German. 

As the Platoon moved out and split up, Annie followed along like a dog waiting for its owner to drop some food, but instead of waiting for food to drop, she was waiting for  _people_  to drop. 

When it was finally safe enough for the three Platoons to start clearing buildings, Margot, Smokey, and the rest of the machine-gunners packed up their stuff and headed into the town to assist in the rest of the attack. 

Rocket launchers flew through windows, grenades were thrown, doors were kicked down. One by one, the buildings were emptied and cleared. 

Sprinting into the town, Margot met up with Luz and Hoobler as they were about to enter another building. Throwing her back against the wall for cover, she nodded to the two men to signal that she was good to go. 

Turning to the door, Luz kicked it open hard and pointed his gun into the entrance. Margot and Hoobler came out from behind him, but none of them fired a single shot. In the building was an older man, a middle-aged woman, and two small children. The children's eyes were filled with fear as their mother held them close. 

The four civilians stared at Margot, Luz, and Hoobler with wide eyes; accepting that this was how they were going to die. 

"Leave them," Margot whispered as she backed out of the doorway. "They're not who we're here to fight."

As the three troopers stepped back into the street, a plane flew overhead and dropped an explosive on the town. The ground shook violently, nearly knocking Margot off of her feet.

"They've got us zeroed!" Lipton yelled from the fire escape of a warehouse. "Spread it out, spread it out! Go! Get the hell out of there!"

With another dropped bomb, Margot found herself parting ways with Luz and Hoobler as she took cover and got out of the street. Annie, on the other hand, was right smack dab in the middle of the action. 

"Medic!" yet another voice screamed, but Annie was already tending to a man who had gotten his entire lower leg blown off. The man was screaming something fierce even after the blonde medic had administered him some morphine. 

Running out of a building close by, Bull reached down and lifted the injured man into a fireman carry with ease. Annie's eyes widened when all of a sudden, her patient wasn't on the ground anymore. "C'mon," Bull called to her as he ran out of the open street. "It's not safe!"

"It's never safe," Annie mumbled to herself as she stood up to attend to the next call for a medic that would no doubt echo through the town sooner or later. 

"Get off the street!" Lipton ordered his men. "Go, go!"

Looking over to the Sergeant, Annie watched in horror as the ground in front of him exploded, sending him flying through the air. Without a moment's hesitation, Annie sprinted over and dropped down next to Lipton at the same time as Talbert.

"Hey, Lip," the small girl addressed her Sergeant even though she was sure that the blast had left a ringing in his ears so loud that he couldn't hear her anyway. "Everything's gonna be just fine. There's nothing to worry about."

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Annie's head whipped up and followed Talbert's pointer finger. Blood was pooling near Lipton's crotch. "Will you check?" Annie turned to Talbert in hopes that she could spare Lipton a little bit of embarrassment. 

Nodding, Talbert ripped open the fabric and took a quick look. "You're okay, Lip," he reassured the terrified-looking man. "Everything's right where it should be."

With a forced smile and a small nod, Lipton slowly began to come to his senses. After giving the Sergeant a once over just to be safe, Annie helped Talbert get Lipton up again. 

"MEDIC!"

"I've got him." Talbert looked down at Annie. "Go."

Giving Talbert a thankful nod, Annie followed the screaming. When the small blonde came upon the smoking building that had just been bombed, her eyes locked onto Tipper, who was standing in the doorway. One of his eyes had been blown out of its socket, his right leg was missing a chunk of flesh where you could see bone, and one of his boots had a hole clean through it.

Liebgott, who was standing beside Tipper, slowly helped his injured friend onto the ground where he could sit. Walking over carefully, Annie knelt down in front of the two and flashed one of her sweet smiles. "Hiya, Tipper." she moved carefully as if he would spook like a baby deer. "I'm just gonna have a look, okay?"

As Liebgott held his friend tight, Tipper let out a sob and blood poured from his lips. Annie knew upon first glance that the man in front of her was not in a good way, but still, she did everything she could. "Lieb's gonna keep holding you just like that, okay? So don't move too much." Annie's eyes drifted up to Liebgott, silently thanking him for helping calm the shocked man. 

"You hang in there, buddy," Liebgott told his friend. "Okay, Annie here is gonna get you fixed up."

Annie's brain went into overdrive as she assessed the multiple wounds. She wracked her brain for a way to make all of the man's pain go away, but she doubted even a horse-tranquilizer could do that. After injecting Tipper with some morphine and pouring sulfa into the leg wound, Annie sat back on her haunches. "Lieb." she looked up at Liebgott. "I need you to help me move him. There isn't any more I can do for him here."

While Annie worked down on the streets taking care of the wounded, Margot was climbing to the second story of a house with Smokey to set up their machine gun again. The Krauts were attempting to escape the town through the back fields, but she was damned if she was going to let even one of those German scum get away.

Yanking open the window, Margot swept her arm across the dresser, knocking off a few picture frames here and there before setting the tripod down on the top. Within the blink of an eye, Smokey had the gun set up and was firing into the flooded field of Germans. 

"Hell yeah!" Margot cheered as she watched a line of Krauts fall face-first into a large puddle of water. 

Moving aside, Smokey handed the gun to her. "Here," he offered. "Give it a go."

With a smile wider than she had ever smiled before, Margot gladly took the gun from Smokey's hands before continuing the work he had started. Pulling the trigger with her finger, she let bullet after bullet fly from her gun and into the back of a retreating German. 

When the last body had flopped down, never to move again, Margot exhaled and released the trigger. With that, Easy and Fox Company had successfully taken Carentan. 


	20. Rumors

Picking up a cloth from the counter beside her, Annie tried to wipe her hands clean even though most of the dirt and blood had dried onto her skin and would require some water and a lot of scrubbing to come off. 

After taking the town of Carentan, she and the other medics had set up an aid station in what was at one point a bar. While Eugene and Spina made the rounds, Annie spent most of her time next to Tipper. She had promised Liebgott that she wouldn't leave him alone, so she didn't. 

Annie set up her triage station right next to Tipper, and in between each patient, she would check on the man. There wasn't much she could do besides give him morphine and keep him calm, but she would have sat with there with him for hours telling him 'It's gonna be okay" over and over again if she had to. Tipper was scared and he needed her. 

When it was finally safe to move the injured out of the town and get them sent to the nearest hospital, Annie held Tipper's hand the whole way, only parting with him when he was loaded onto the truck. "You're gonna be just fine," Annie told him, her voice a low whisper as she brushed some of his hair from his forehead. "They're gonna take real good care of you."

As the truck rumbled away down the gravel road, Annie watched for a minute, her arms crossed over her chest. So far Tipper had been the worst she had ever seen, and it troubled her that even with all the training she had gone through, there wasn't much she could do. All she wanted was to be able to pull out a magic wand and make everything okay again, but all she had was morphine, sulfa, bandages, plasma, and her words. 

Exhaling, Annie turned around to head back to the aid station. There was always another injury to treat; always another man in need. Lifting her head up, Annie's steps faltered slightly when she spotted Liebgott standing a few feet away. It was obvious he had been there to watch Tipper's departure, and it was obvious it was messing with him. 

Walking over, Annie stood beside the former cab driver and sighed. She was silent for a while, just letting him get used to her company. "You did a really good job." she finally spoke up. "You were so calm under pressure...you made Tipper feel safe. I could see it."

"I wish I could have done more." his voice was low and rough like those were the first words he had spoken in a while.

"Me too." the small medic placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and gave him a few reassuring pats. "He's okay now. He's gonna get fixed up and then he's gonna go home. He's okay."

When the silence between the two troopers formed once again, Annie took that as her cue to leave. She knew there were no words that would help someone after they had watched their friend almost die, so she parted ways with Liebgott, created a mental note to remember to check on him later, and headed back to the aid station. 

When Annie returned, the bar turned medic station had filled up even more. Eugene was digging a bullet out of Winters' leg, Blithe was sitting on the ground with a blank expression, and Margot was sitting on the table where Tipper had been lying before. 

"Why am I not surprised to see you here?" the blonde medic shuffled over to her friend and sighed.

Margot began to lift her shirt. "Hey, you were the one who said you wanted to do regular checks on the wound. I'm more than happy to go back out there with the guys."

"No, no, stay right where you are." Annie couldn't help but chuckle slightly as she reached for Margot's shirt and pulled it the rest of the way up. Immediately she could tell the wound wasn't healing as she had hoped because the bandage was soaked through with blood.

"That doesn't look too good," Margot commented nonchalantly. "I thought I felt something wet earlier."

Annie didn't say anything back. She knew Margot was in pain and she knew she was just trying to put on a brave face for the company. Getting taken off of the front lines, in Margot's eyes, was failure; and she did not accept failure. 

"Margot, I really wish you would just go to the hospital." Annie started to clean the wound. "It would just be a few weeks. You would be back with us in no time."

Margot opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Annie knew she didn't want to go to the hospital. Annie knew she  _wouldn't_  go. She didn't need to tell her again.

Pressing a new bandage over the wound, Annie dropped Margot's shirt back down and stepped back to allow Margot room to jump down from the table. "It will bleed less if you avoid twisting."

"No twisting." Margot took the advice as she picked her rifle up from where it had been leaning again the wall. "Got it. Thanks."

Annie was beyond tired of treating Margot's wound over and over again, but no matter how much she hated it, it was her job. She just wished sometimes that the taller woman would listen to her every once in a while. She did know what she was talking about. 

As Margot stepped out into the street again to meet up with a few of the guys, she ran into Smokey who was heading into the aid station. "Hey," she stopped him and eyed the spots of blood on his shoulder. "What happened?"

"Shrapnel." he groaned. "I didn't even feel it that much until after when all the adrenaline went away. I would just leave it, but I'm not as foolish as you. I'm not looking to piss off any medics."

"Yeah, well, not everyone can be me." Margot nodded as a sly smirk spread across her face. "But, I'm impressed. I couldn't even tell you were injured when we were taking out those Krauts. Does this mean my partner is leaving me?"

"Depends what Doc says." he shrugged as he stepped around her. "You can't fool me, though. I know you want me gone so you can be main gunner."

Margot laughed. "You got me." she patted him on his good shoulder. "Get better, hey? See you soon."

"Not soon enough." he winked before disappearing into the aid station.

As Smokey looked for a place to sit down, Annie was trying to find someone else to care for. On her way to the back of the bar where all of the walking wounded were staying, she passed by as Eugene was just finishing up with Winters. 

"All good?" she asked.

Eugene nodded as he took the metal basin with the bullet in it and set it aside. "As long as he stays off of it." 

Winters and Annie shared a look. They both knew that probably wasn't going to happen, but it was sweet for Roe to try anyway. Peering over Annie's shoulder, Winters locked eyes on the man sitting against the wall. "What's wrong with Blithe?"

Annie just shrugged; she hadn't a clue why the man was there. "Well, nothing," Eugene sighed. "Except he can't see."

"He can't see?" Annie cocked a brow. "What do you mean he can't see? He looks fine."

"That's what he says." Eugene went back to tending to Winters' leg.

Turning around, Annie slowly approached the sitting man before leaning down. "Hey, Blithe," she gently placed a hand on his shoulder, but he jumped anyway. "What's going on? You feeling alright?"

Blithe's watery, bright blue eyes stared straight past Annie. "I-I don't know ma'am." he began as Winters hobbled over and crouched down beside Annie. "Things, they just kinda went black on me."

Reaching forward, Winters waved his hand in front of Blithe's face. There was no reaction; not from his face, not from his pupils. "You can't see?"

"Not a thing, sir." Blithe shook his head. "I can't see a thing."

"Well, you just take it easy, Blithe." Winters, as always, put the well being of his men at the top of his priority list. "We're gonna get you out of here. Get you back to England. It's gonna be okay."

Shutting his eyes, Blithe drew in a deep breath and turned away slightly. Annie could tell he was trying not to cry. Ever since Toccoa, he had been a sweet, quiet man who's soul was too pure for war. Annie had seen it in him from day one. 

"Sir." Blithe hugged his legs closer to his chest. "I didn't want to let anyone down."

Annie's heart broke. "Just take it easy." Winters placed a caring hand on Blithe's arm. "It's okay, son."

As Winters stood up, Annie reached forward and gently looped her arms under Blithe's armpits. "Let's stand up, okay?" her voice was calm and soothing. "We're gonna sit you down somewhere a little quieter, and then as soon as possible, we'll have you on your way back to England. How does that sound?"

Blithe opened his mouth to answer as he slowly, and with the help of the young medic, rose to his feet. His eyes widened and he blinked a few times. Then he stared down at his hands. "Sir," he called for Winters. 

Stopping in his tracks, Winters turned around and looked at the man. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Thank you, sir." Blithe looked Winters right in the eyes, indicating that whatever he had been dealing with had disappeared. "I'm okay." he stepped out of Annie's arms and braced himself against the nearest wall. "Yeah, I'm okay. I think I'm okay."

Annie looked to Eugene, hoping for some sort of explanation, but the male medic just shrugged. "You can see?" Annie inquired; thoroughly confused as to what was happening.

Blithe pressed the heel of his hand into his left eye and rubbed it. "God, I don't know what happened. I think I'm okay."

Winters was at a loss for words. He wasn't sure if Blithe had been suffering a mental breakdown or what, but at that moment in time, he deemed it best not to make too big a deal out of it. "Alright." he nodded, his eyes jumping between Blithe and the medics. "Well, stay here a little while longer and make sure. And, then you can report back to your platoon."

"Yes, sir." Blithe acknowledged before slowly making his way through the aid station to find somewhere to sit down. 

The Lieutenant and two medics watched as the fragile man disappeared into the small crowd of people. "Have you ever seen anything like that?" Winters questioned.

"No." Annie shook her head in disbelief. She still wasn't completely sure what she had just witnessed, but on the bright side, it seemed that Blithe was going to be just fine. "I've read about a thing called hysterical blindness before." the blonde girl began as she ushered Winters back onto the table so Eugene could bandage his leg. "It happens when someone experiences immense amounts of emotional stress. It's basically the body's way of reducing the stimulus it receives so the person can calm down. I didn't think it was actually real."

While Annie went back to work, starting with yet another bullet wound, Margot had just joined some of the men who were lounging on a small flight of steps outside, enjoying the sun and shooting the shit.

"Hey, where you been hiding?" Malarkey looked up at her; squinting his eyes to protect his retinas. 

"Oh, y'know." the tall woman fished a cigarette out of her pocket and placed it loosely between her lips as she lowered herself down onto the step, a groan escaping her as the wound on her side screamed to stop being agitated. "Killing Krauts, taking over towns, protecting my fellow troopers. The usual hero shit."

Muck snorted. "Yeah, you looked like a real hero just now as you struggled to sit down."

"I may have a huge gash on my side but I'll still come over there and kick your ass." Margot retorted as she lit the cigarette between her lips and took a puff.

"How is that cut?" More asked.

Margot sighed as she laid back and closed her eyes. "Hurts like a bitch."

"How'd you get it?" Muck prodded as he pulled a tube of cheese out of his bag and opened it.

"D-Day."

Silence took hold of the group as Blithe walked over and laid down without a word. No one asked any more questions about Margot's wound. Over the months they had all spent together, they had gained enough respect for the female machine-gunner to let her talk about it when she wanted to. It obviously wasn't something she was too keen on sharing yet.

Looking up at the blue sky above, More exhaled. "Berlin by Christmas," he told the group. "That's how I see it."

Margot, along with a few others, couldn't help but chuckle or scoff. "You're full of it." Malarkey shook his head in disagreement.

Finally managing to get the tube of cheese open, Muck squirted a bunch into his mouth before his face immediately soured with regret. "Oh, God." he looked down at the tube in his hands. "This Kraut cheese is...it stinks!"

"Bread's stale, too." Penkala groaned as he handed a piece back to his buddy.

"Give me that." Muck snatched the bread out of Penkala's hand and shoved it into his mouth to neutralize the taste of the dreaded Kraut cheese.

More placed his hands on the concrete behind himself and leaned back. "Yes, sir, the way we came in town today and took over, you know, it don't seem like Jerry's got too much fight left in him."

"Hey, More, don't get hit in the face when Jerry throws in the sponge, alright?" Malarkey warned the man not to underestimate the Germans. 

"You mark my words, Mal, Berlin by Christmas." 

Margot inhaled deep on her cigarette before letting the smoke pass between her lips. "Will you stop saying that?" she spoke around the cigarette. "You're gonna jinx it."

"Enjoy it while it lasts." a voice came from above, startling the men and woman. Looking up, they saw Spiers standing above them. They hadn't even heard him walk up. "We'll be moving out soon."

More looked up at Spiers, a cigarette hanging from his bottom lip. "Out of town, Lieutenant?" he asked. "Already?"

Spiers glared down at More, his helmet casting a shadow over his face so his eyes were hidden. "That's right." he began to make his way down the steps.

"Don't they know we're just getting settled here?" More pushed his luck by backtalking a Lieutenant, but it was clear he didn't care.

Spiers just looked at More, his silence and stare providing enough of a reprimanding as it was. Then, without even a blink, he turned and walked off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Margot kicked More's shin with her boot. "Are you stupid?" she furrowed her brows at him. "Talking back to a superior like that. Keep that up and it ain't gonna be the Krauts that get you."

"What?" More shot back.

"You know, you're taking your life into your own hands." Muck's eyes flickered in the direction of Spiers, double checking that he was still far enough away. Then he turned to Malarkey. "Ain't that right?"

Malarkey kept his head down. "I told you, I didn't actually see it."

"What, Spiers shooting the prisoners or the Sergeant in his own platoon?" Penkala tried to clarify.

Margot sat up fast, most definitely putting more strain on her wound than she should have. "Spiers shot prisoners _and_  a Sergeant?" her voice was a low whisper. "How much did I miss while I was working my way through the Normandy countryside?"

"The prisoner one is unconfirmed." Muck caught Margot up to speed before turning to Penkala. "But I didn't hear the one about the Sergeant."

Digging his knife into the can of tuna in his hands, Penkala ate the meat off of the blade before nodding. "Well, supposedly the guy was drunk and refused to go on a patrol. Who knows if it's true?"

Picking up a rock from the cement beside himself, Muck chucked it at Malarkey. "Well, I know a guy who said an eyewitness told him that Spiers hosed those prisoners."

"Why?" Blithe finally decided to join the conversation, the presence of the new voice causing a few of them to startle a little. "What for?"

Muck leaned in closer to the group and rested his forearm on the step above. "On D-day. Spiers comes across this group of Kraut prisoners digging a hole or some such. Under guard and all. He breaks out a pack of smokes, passes them out. He even gives 'em a light. Then, all of a sudden, he swings up his Thompson..." Muck imitates the sound of a gun going off by letting his lips vibrate off of one another. "And he hoses them. I mean, goddamn, gives 'em smokes first? You see that's why I don't believe he really did it."

Margot hummed in agreement. "Waste of smokes."

"Oh, you don't believe it?" Malarkey mocked his friend.

"You didn't see it."

Penkala twisted around to face Muck. "I heard he didn't do it."

"Oh, no, no, no, it was him alright." More continued the story that was, frankly, getting more and more ludicrous by the second. "But it was more than eight guys. It was more like twenty."

Muck took a puff of his smoke and shrugged. "Hell of a shot."

"All except one guy..." More leaned back and relaxed. "Who he left alone."

There was a pause in the conversation for a moment. No one was quite sure what to do or say next. "Well, all I know, from what I heard, he took that last 105 on D-day practically by himself. Running through MGfire like a maniac."

Malarkey nodded. "That, I did see."

"Yeah, that was a little while after you decided to run out into the middle of the field for nothing, from what Annie said," Margot recalled the tale that Annie had shared with her. "She was none too impressed."

"Shut up." 

"I don't care if any of the other stuff's true," Penkala admitted.

Picking up another stone, Muck tossed it at Blithe, who was just lying down and minding his own business at that point. "Hey, Albert. What do you think?"

Blithe's big, round eyes stared back at the group. "I don't know." he decided to stay neutral on the subject. "I'm gonna have to take everybody's word for it. I didn't see any of it."

"I didn't see any of it either." Margot turned the attention back on herself as she put out her smoke on the ground beside herself. "But, I don't think it's true. Guy shoots a Sergeant and eight — maybe twenty — POWs...he's not still just walking around as if nothing happened."

Before any of the men could respond to her statement, Harry Welsh's voice could be heard shouting through the streets. "Let's go, 1st Platoon, weapons on me! We're moving out!"

Following Lieutenant Welsh's orders, a few more Lieutenants called for their platoons to pack up and gather up. Reluctantly, Margot stood to her feet and grabbed her gear. Carentan was nice while it lasted, but in the war, nothing lasted long.


	21. War Wounds

The sun shone down hard on the platoons of Easy Company as they made their way through an open field, away from Carentan and onto their next destination. There was a cool breeze that provided minuscule amounts of relief from the hot weather, but for the most part, the men and women were sweating like pigs. 

Peering into the foliage to his right, Perconte huffed. "Hey, Luz? How far we going?"

"Oh, Jesus Christ, Frank, I don't know." Luz groaned as he walked along with everyone else. "Until they tell us to stop."

"High ground," Hoobler interjected with more information than Luz possessed. "There's high ground up ahead."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Okay, genius, answer me this then: why is Easy Company the only company who's either at the front of an advance or, like now, exposed at the far edge of the line?"

Annie, who was walking along with the bickering boys, decided to throw in her own two cents and lighten the mood. "Sobel." she reverted back to the old ways of blaming everything bad on their former Captain. "He called and made sure that you personally, Frank, would always be in imminent danger. It's for blousing your pants over your boots like a paratrooper."

The men, even some who hadn't been a part of the conversation, chuckled. "To keep you on your toes." Hoobler gave a more plausible explanation. 

"No, that's not what I'm saying." Perconte shook his head. "I'm saying that we're never in the middle. And we're the fifth of nine companies of this regiment. Able through Item. Think of it."

Hoobler opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could form even one syllable, gunshots rang out. Everyone dropped to the ground as explosions began flying overhead. "Contact right!" Welsh turned to his platoon. "Get in the hedgerow!"

Jumping to her feet again, even though every bone in her body was telling her to stay low, Annie hurried her way into the cover of the trees and bushes. Just as she scurried into the hedgerow, a man beside her collapsed to the ground. "Damnit," she muttered under her breath as she checked for a pulse, but there was nothing there. He was gone. 

"MEDIC!" 

And so it began. The calls for medic came on fast and hard, and before long there were people crying out from all directions; most from inside the shrubbery, but some wounded men croaked out for help as they lay among the dead bodies in the field. That was when Annie had to seriously weigh the risk with the reward. If it were up to her, she would save everyone...but it wasn't up to her.

She had to weigh the pros of helping one man against the cons of getting shot herself and potentially eliminating the chance of her saving a handful of other men. Never in her life did she think she would have to choose between saving one life or another, but there she was. 

Dropping to her knees next to the first man who had called out for a medic, Annie assessed the injury as she opened her medic bag. At a time like that, when men were being shot left and right, she had to simplify her treatment methods. Locate the bleeding, stop the bleeding as best she could, move onto the next guy, come back later for a permanent fix. 

It wasn't ideal, but it was all she could do when there were three medics for the whole of Easy Company.

One by one, Annie, Spina, and Eugene made their way around, helping people where they could and to the best of their abilities. For the time being, they were stuck in the hedgerow. The Germans across the field would shoot them if they so much as poked a toe out, so they dug ditches, got comfy, and settled in for the night.

●●● 

Between the sounds of the rain and the Germans across the way singing their hearts out, Annie was starting to grow tired of sitting in that foxhole. She was wet, cold, tired, hungry, and although she didn't want to be, she was still worrying about Margot.

She knew Margot was somewhere nearby with the rest of 2nd Platoon, and that she was probably doing just fine, but the small medic still worried. She had been with 1st Platoon since leaving Carentan and had yet to check up on her friend. 

With a crack of thunder, Annie jolted out of her thoughts, subsequently startling Martin, who was sitting beside her. "Whoa, easy there, kid." he turned to look at her. 

"Sorry." she apologized as Blithe slid into the foxhole next to her. 

As the singing Germans kicked it up a notch, Martin turned to Annie and Blithe. "What have they got to sing about?"

Hearing the bushes from behind them rustle, both Annie and Martin spun around, Martin's rifle pointed at the person crashing through the foliage. "Flash!" they shouted at the same time.

Coming into view, Welsh smiled knowingly. "Thunder." he breathed as the singing broke through the claps of thunder once more. "Catchy tune, ain't it?"

"Hey, Lieutenant, what's the news?" Martin settled back down and rested his rifle in his lap. 

Welsh shrugged, his face plastered with a look that could only be explained as boredom. "Oh, same as it was this afternoon. They're in their hedgerow, we're in ours."

Martin nodded before requesting a favour from the Lieutenant. "Spell me a minute, sir?"

"Are you gonna let Blithe get some sack time?" Welsh asked. After hearing about the incident back in Caretan and Blithe's small stay in the aid station, he was just as worried about the man as anyone else.

"My back teeth are floating." 

Annie looked between the two men and sighed. "I'll be here, Lieutenant."

"Yeah, but a medic has to be ready to leave at any time." Welsh reminded her, as if she had forgotten, before turning back to Martin. "Get back here ASAP, Martin."

"You can count on me, sir," Martin assured before scrambling up the side of the foxhole and taking off to find somewhere to relieve himself. 

In Martin's absence, Welsh took his spot beside Annie. The two men on either side had a conversation over her about Blithe's temporary blindness and the girl just sat back and half-listened. She heard Blithe say something about Eugene mentioning her hysterical blindness theory, but besides that, she didn't give their words much mind. 

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Annie looked up and came face to face with a canteen. "Drink up." Welsh encouraged her. 

Taking the canteen, Annie nodded her thanks before taking a small sip. Her eyes narrowed as the liquid burned her throat. "That's not water," she coughed as she handed it back.

Welsh flashed her a smile before his eyes drifted back to the nervous man on the other side of her. "It's a game, Blithe. That's all." he used the back of his hand to wipe the rain from his face. "Hell, we're just moving the ball forward one yard at a time. Nothing but a game."

Blithe's bright blue eyes focused on his Lieutenant. "What is, sir?"

"This." Welsh gestured around to everything. "The whole thing. Just a game."

"Harry." a familiar voice said. Looking up, Annie saw Winters standing above their foxhole. He was covered in dirt and was soaked completely through just like the rest of them, but he looked pretty unbothered by it. 

Grabbing his gear, Welsh climbed out of the foxhole and joined Winters. The two spoke for a short while, but their voices were too quiet and the rain was too loud for either Blithe or Annie to hear what they were saying.

As the two Lieutenants walked off, Annie turned to Blithe and gave him a toothless smile. "I'm glad to hear you're doing better." she made small talk while they waited for Martin to return. "I'm sure not being able to see was a very scary thing, but you handled it really well. It always makes my job easier when my patients stay calm."

Blithe only nodded. He never really spoke much; in fact, her and Winters' conversation with him back in the aid station at Carentan had been the most she had ever heard him speak. All in all, he didn't seem like the type of person who would have volunteered for the Airborne at all.

As she stared at the timid man, Annie remembered a story Margot had shared back at Camp Mirage about a boy who used to come to her shooting range every day with his dad. Andrew, she thought his name had been. Margot said he was always quiet and hesitant, but nevertheless, he showed up with his dad every day. 

Annie thought Blithe sounded a lot like Andrew.

"MEDIC!"

Annie jumped to her feet, but before she could dig her hands into the dirt to pull herself out of the foxhole, she froze. Martin wasn't back yet and there was always supposed to be two to a foxhole, minimum. She stared at Blithe while her ears focused on the distant screams. 

Decision time. One life over the possibility of losing many more. Did she break the rules and go or stay and hope that one of the other medics got there in time?

Before she was sure she had even made up her mind, Annie was running through the trees, her feet slipping in the mud and the rain falling into her eyes. When she arrived at the scene, her eyes scanned the men in front of her.

Laying on his back, with his bayonet in his hands, Smith's eyes were wide and full of terror. Leaning against a tree trunk, Talbert was groaning and his hands were clamped over his stomach. In between them, Liebgott was staring up at the medic.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Smith blabbered as he put his weapon down. "I didn't know it was him!"

Shaking the confusion from her head, Annie got down beside Talbert and immediately understood what had happened. "What are you doing wearing a Kraut poncho?" she scolded the injured man at the same time as she ripped open a pack of sulfa and poured it into the stab wound. 

"He looked like a Kraut." Smith's mouth was moving a mile a minute.

Pulling out a bandage from her bag, Annie turned to Liebgott and held it out to him. "Hold this for a second, will you?" she shoved it into his hands before using both hands to hike up Talbert's layers as much as she could. "You know, we gotta stop meeting like this." she almost chuckled as she took the bandage from Liebgott. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you wanted to be a medic."

Before Liebgott could answer, Eugene rushed out of the darkness and dropped to his knees beside Annie. "Can you breathe?" he asked Talbert after seeing the wound in his torso. 

"Yeah, I can breathe!" Talbert snapped.

"You two, hold up his shirts while I bandage this up," Annie instructed Eugene and Liebgott before looking up at Talbert and smiling. "You're gonna be just fine. Deep breaths for me, okay? Calm down. We've got you."

Talbert continued to moan in pain while Annie and Eugene worked on him, and before long, the noise attracted curious or worried individuals. One of the first was Lieutenant Spiers, who had only stayed long enough to asked the medics to keep Talbert as quiet as possible before moving on. 

Even people from 2nd Platoon could hear the cries as they echoed through the night, and Margot was one of those people. At first, she wasn't sure what she was hearing, but after a while, the frantic screams turned to dull moans. 

"Probably one of those nervous shmucks from 1st Platoon." Joe Toye grumbled as he folded his arms across his chest, closed his eyes, and leaned back against the dirt wall of the foxhole.

"Yeah..." Margot trailed off as she listened some more; her mind full of different scenarios as to what could have happened. "I'm sure whatever it is, the medics have got it under control."

Silence took over again and Margot shifted slightly. She would never admit it to anyone who asked, but her ribcage was starting to hurt again and she was having difficulty getting comfortable. She didn't check on the wound for fear that it could get dirty and infected, or even that she wouldn't like what she saw, but she could tell that it probably wasn't doing too well.

"Ah, fuck." she accidentally muttered as her hand slipped in the wet mud while she was trying to push herself up and she fell back down to the bottom of the foxhole. Her side throbbed but she didn't let it show. At least, she didn't _think_  she had let it show. 

"Your side still hurting?" Joe's voice startled her a little; she had thought he was going to try and get some sleep.

Margot was quiet. She wasn't sure if she should answer honestly or not. Out of all the men of Easy Company, Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere were her closest friends, but she still wasn't completely confident that they wouldn't go ratting her out to Winters.

"I don't want to get taken off the front lines," she said instead. Ever since she had found out about her partner Smokey being sent to the hospital for the wounds he suffered in Carentan, she was suddenly more scared of the hospital than she was the actual war itself. 

Joe puffed air out of his nose, which almost passed for a laugh. "Are you seeing where we are right now?" he asked. "It's raining and we're sitting in a hole in the ground. The hospital ain't great, but it's definitely a step up from this."

"That's not it." she shook her head. She was going to elaborate, but something told her not to. She wasn't sure why, but she suddenly felt as if her reasoning made no sense at all. She felt as if she were truly crazy; crazier than Blithe's hysterical blindness. 

Joe looked over when Margot didn't speak. He was worried about the tall woman. He was worried she was taking on too much, too fast. "Lemme see it." he turned to face her. 

Margot followed his gaze down to her ribcage and froze. "See it?" she furrowed her brows. "Why?"

"You don't like it when the medics — even Annie — look at it because you're afraid they'll tell Winters and have you sent to the hospital." he summed up her feelings exactly. "I'm not a medic. I don't know what I'm looking at. Let me see."

Margot stared back at the usually gruff and private man. At first, she thought it was odd that he was offering to help, but then she remembered how he had helped Guarnere get her back to the aid station. She remembered Annie telling her that he had carried her the rest of the way when she passed out. 

"Okay." she finally agreed as she began to pull her tucked-in shirt and undershirt from out of her pants. "Just, don't touch it too much. It hurts."

"I know it hurts. That's why I'm helping, idiot." a smirk played at the corners of his lips. Slowly, he lifted his hands and touched the edges of the bandage that were starting to loosen from the skin due to the sweat and dirt. 

Margot shivered at his cold touch, but she let him do his thing. She kept her eyes straight ahead, still apprehensive of what she might see if she looked down. "How does it look?" she questioned, her voice quiet and unconfident. 

"I told you I don't know what I'm looking at." he retorted.

"Then why did I let you do this?" she felt a laugh escape her lips as she turned to look at him. 

Joe's eyes moved up to meet hers. "I don't know." his dark irises stared back at her. "Why did you?"

Margot could clearly see what someone would think if they had walked in on what was happening, but they would have been wrong. Margot had a job to do, and that was that. There was nothing else. She felt nothing. No quickening of her pulse, no warmth in her cheeks. Nothing.

"Will you just tell me if it looks bad?" she eventually gave in and took a look for herself. Surprisingly, despite the pain, it didn't look much worse than it had when Annie had checked it last. It was a bit dirty, and some spots were bleeding a little, but somehow it looked like it was healing very slowly.

"It's not bad." 

Margot stifled a laugh. "How would you know? You're not a medic."

"You just-" he started before shaking his head and reaching for his canteen. "It's clean water, I promise," he assured before pouring some of his water over the cut to clean the dirt away. When he was done, he gently pressed the bandage back over the wound and shifted away.

Margot smiled to herself as she tucked her shirts back into her pants. "Thank you."

"No problem."

Hearing footsteps, the two looked up as Guarnere slid into the foxhole and settled himself between them. "Wonderful night, isn't it?" he greeted.

"Yeah." Margot and Joe answered at the same time. 

Silence fell over the three like a thick blanket and before she knew it, Margot's eyes were shutting and she was dozing off to sleep. She wasn't sure why exactly, or how, but her side felt better and for once her concentration on the pain wasn't keeping her awake. 

The last thing she thought about before her brain shut off for the night was how offended Annie would be that she let Joe Toye of all people tend to her wound instead of her. 


	22. Okay

With her knees tucked underneath herself, Annie sat quietly in her foxhole and listened as Luz traded some of his supplies for smokes or other items he was running low on. It was morning and Easy Company was still pinned down by the German soldiers across the way, forcing the Lieutenants to begin planning an attack. They couldn't just sit there all day cowering in their holes in the ground.

Annie, however, really just wanted to get some sleep. She had been up for the majority of the night tending to poor Talbert, who only stopped moaning after she had helped Eugene load him up and sneak him out in the early hours of the day. When she hadn't been tending to Talbert, she had been worrying about everyone else. Her mind was in a constant, vicious cycle of worrying about current patients and worrying about future patients. 

When a bag of ammo dropped down at the medic's feet, she didn't even flinch; probably because she was too tired. Shaking her head slightly as if it were possible to shake the sleepiness out, Annie stood up and walked over to where Welsh was explaining the plan to the group of men around him.

"No, we don't know what they've got." Annie heard the Lieutenant say as she squeezed her way in between him and Martin. "We may be attacking a weaker force, possibly more paratroopers."

"And you know how they can be," Hoobler commented as he peered at the map over Welsh's shoulder.

Welsh flashed his characteristic gap-toothed grin. "Fire and maneuver. That's the name of the game, fire and maneuver. Dog and Fox companies will be on our left flank, moving with us. Any questions?"

Guarnere, along with the other men, shook his head. At that point, Welsh's plan was the only plan that had a shot at working. "I'm thinking Eugene, Spina, and I will stay towards the back." Annie used her finger to indicate the formation her and the other medics would take on the map. "It'll allow us to tend to the wounded while the rest of the company provides protection in the front."

"Sounds good, Private." Welsh nodded as he folded up the map and tucked it away. "Let's make 'em holler."

Glancing down at his watch, Perconte watched the small hand tick a few times before sighing. "It's nine-thirty in the evening back home. Must be-"

Before Frank could even get his thought out, a familiar sound screeched overhead. "Mortar!" Guarnere warned.

Without even thinking, Annie tossed herself into the nearest foxhole along with Welsh and Martin. "Get that OP here!" Welsh called as the first explosion sent dirt flying high into the sky. Another man just to the left of Annie tried to go for cover, but he was shot down. His body fell limp beside the small medic, but he was gone before she even had the chance to tell him to 'hang in there'. 

Crawling overtop of Annie, Welsh kept his head down as he made his way toward Luz and the radio. "Easy six, Easy red six!" he yelled into the receiver. "I've got mortars across my line. No sign of infantry yet. I'm pulling the OP in, over!"

Within a matter of minutes, the mortar squads had set up and were firing back at the Germans. Margot desperately wanted to go out to the front and set up her machine-gun, but with no Smokey, she had no choice but to lay low and use her rifle to the best of her abilities. It was impossible for one trooper to carry the gun, the ammo, the tripod, and the barrels and still be expected to move at a half-decent pace.

Sprinting up to where the other men were positioned, Margot dropped down just behind a row of small bushes and watched the firefight in front of her. "Watch for silhouettes on the horizon!" Winters ordered as he made his way down the line. "Keep low!"

With Perconte next to her, Margot took shot after shot, some killing the Germans, some wounding them, and some missing altogether. "God, I wish I had my big gun right now." she huffed as she reloaded and looked down the barrel of her rifle once more. 

Winters continued to shout orders and encouragements at his men as he made his way around the three platoons. As he passed by a wounded man on the ground, he was almost taken out by the small, blonde medic jumping out of the bushes. "Sorry, sir," she mumbled hastily, not even making eye contact as she dropped down beside the injured man and got to work. If there was one thing Winters could always rely on his female medic for, it was her speed and efficiency. 

Running over to Perconte and Margot, Bill Guarnere, the Platoon Sergeant of 2nd Platoon, placed a hand on his friends' shoulders. "Cover the crest of the hill!" he shouted over the sounds of war before running off again.

Bullets were littering the trees and bushes, sending leaves, twigs, and even some branches falling to the ground. Splinters of bark flew through the air and dirt was bursting upwards everywhere you looked. 

Hearing a loud, low rumble, Margot looked up from her gun and over to the hedgerow on the German side. Her mouth dropped open. Tanks. Lots of Tanks. They were fucked.

"Where the hell did they come from?!" Welsh's voice ripped through his throat as he glanced at the oncoming artillery through his binoculars. When the first tank fired, the chaos reached an all new high. "Holy shit, there goes our left flank!" 

Turning to the left, Margot's blood boiled at the sight of Dog and Fox company retreating. How could they leave Easy alone like that? Did they have no shame? No honour? 

Tanks were arriving from damn near every direction at that point and Margot could feel her palms begin to perspire. She was nervous; hell, she was scared. They were very clearly outnumbered. However, the raven-haired woman didn't let her fear stop her from reloading, settling back down, and firing again and again and again. 

The gunfire was loud in Margot's ear and she was sure they would ring for hours after everything had gone silent again... _if_ everything went silent again. 

 Looking up from the patient she had just tended to, Annie almost missed the sight of Welsh and McGrath running into the middle of the open field. Her eyes widened and her mind flashed back to the stunt Malarkey had pulled on D-day. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought the men in her company wanted to die.

Running up to the front of the hedgerow, Annie fell onto her stomach and watched as Welsh frantically pulled out the rocket launcher and set it up over McGrath's shoulder. A tank was barreling towards them as fast as it could and everything seemed to move in slow motion. 

"Come on!" Annie could hear McGrath scream. "You're gonna get me killed, Lieutenant!"

Welsh didn't answer; instead, he fired the first shot at the tank. The explosive hit the armoured body and bounced off, doing no damage whatsoever. "I knew you'd get me killed!" McGrath accused as Welsh loaded another projectile into the launcher. 

The tank got closer and closer, but McGrath didn't fire. Annie could see Welsh's mouth moving a mile a minute, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. The tank's main gun adjusted its aim right for Welsh and McGrath, but still, the two Easy men didn't fire.

Annie's heart was beating so hard she almost feared it was going to burst out of her chest. She could somehow hear her pulse in her ears, louder than the gunfire and screaming. Mentally, she prepared herself to watch two men die.

As the tank began its climb up the only hill between it and the Easy men, McGrath fired at the newly exposed underside of the tank. The explosive hit its target and the tank came to a defeated halt. Jumping up, Welsh and McGrath ran back to cover just as the tank fired its final shot, sending Earth into the sky. 

"Covering fire!" Winters instructed. 

When Welsh and McGrath threw themselves back into Easy's hedgerow, Annie felt like she could finally breathe again. "You damn near gave me a heart attack." she gave the Lieutenant a pat on the back. 

"MEDIC!"

Without giving Welsh a chance to say something back, Annie was gone again, running towards the frantic cries of Buck Compton. When she arrived, Buck was kneeling over a man who had been shot in the leg. "Everything is going to be okay." the words flowed from the medic's mouth like water from a tap. "Stay calm, for me, okay? Everything is gonna be just fine."

Margot could hear Annie's soothing words from behind her, but she didn't dare take her eyes off of the horizon. Even though taking out that one tank had been a victory, it had been a very small victory in the grand scheme of things. Easy Company was still vastly outnumbered and more men were being shot down by the minute.

 Then, another low rumbling, but this time from the opposite side of the field. "Shermans!" someone proclaimed as the friendly tanks appeared over the far hill. A wide smile spread across Margot's face; so wide that she could feel her dry lips cracking. The 2nd armoured tanks rolled in as a force to be reckoned with, and just like that, the odds had been evened out. 

"That's right, you sorry asses!" Margot heard Luz and Perconte laugh from beside her. "Run!"

"Oh, you beautiful babies, you!" Welsh was over the moon at the sight of the artillery. 

Annie could hear the cheers and praise all around her, but for her, her work was still far from over. Even if the battle itself was drawing near its end, the blonde medic would still be battling with death for hours to come. 

"Let's go!" Winters turned to his platoon. "Pour it on 'em! Let 'em have it, come on!"

With the tables turned, the Germans began to retreat at an impressive rate. The Sherman tanks pushed them back further and further until they had nowhere else to go. With the Krauts scattering like cockroaches, Margot let out a laugh as she aimed into the field. "Open season, baby!" she exclaimed before taking out enemy after enemy.

In a cloud of smoke, the final German tank disappeared back over the hill and out of sight. With the battle over, hundreds of cheers echoed through the hedgerow. Drawing a deep breath, Margot rolled onto her back, slumped against the log she had been using for cover, and pulled a cigarette out of her pocket. Before she could even reach for her lighter, a hand appeared and lit the smoke for her. 

"Thanks." she panted before taking a long, much-need drag from the cigarette. Perconte lit Luz's smoke, and then his own. At the same time, the three inhaled, let the smoke circulate in their lungs and bring with it a sense of relaxation, and exhaled. The air in front of them turned grey and cloudy for a moment before the smoke dissipated. 

While the rest of Easy Company celebrated their win, Annie was still working her way from man to man, her hands moving at the speed of light as they poured sulfa into wounds, injected morphine, bandaged limbs, and checked for pulses. 

For a soldier, war never ended, only slowed down sometimes. For a medic, war didn't even slow down. Men were always about to die, dying, or dead.

●●● 

Crouching among the bushes with the other Easy men, Annie kept her eyes trained on the abandoned farmhouse in the clearing. Welsh and Nixon were talking among themselves, probably about who to send. 

Annie knew that she probably wouldn't be one of the chosen ones, but she was ready just in case. "Need to take a look at that farmhouse." Welsh turned around to face his company. "Who wants to go?"

As expected, no one volunteered. Well, that was until Blithe's head poked out of the shrubbery. "I'll go." he offered. It was a drastic change from the man who he used to be; the man who would avoid conflict at all costs. Annie wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but Blithe had changed eighteen days ago during the battle on the outskirts of Carentan. 

The once wide-eyed and apprehensive man now acted as if he possessed no fear at all, and Annie wasn't sure if that worried her more or less than the nervous wreck he once was.

"Anybody else?" Welsh took a shot in the dark before choosing the last two himself. "Martin, Dukeman, you just volunteered. Hubba hubba."

"I'll be lead." Blithe said as he stepped out of the bushes with Martin and Dukeman on his heels. 

Welsh was impressed with the improvement he had seen in Blithe and was grateful that he had one less nervous, trigger-happy trooper to deal with. "Blithe's lead scout, move out," he ordered the three men before turning back around and bringing his binoculars up to his eyes.

As the two Lieutenants fell back into conversation with one another, Annie sat back on her haunches next to Shifty and waited. She always hoped she wouldn't be called, but she was ready for it nevertheless.

The group was silent and the only noise to be heard was the sound of the men's footsteps as they approached the house. Annie watched as the three disappeared from her sight. A few seconds passed.

Gunshot.

"Here we go again," Welsh grumbled. "Covering fire!"

"MEDIC!"

Both hands wrapped tight around the strap of her medic bag, Annie burst out of the bushes like a rabbit running from a fox and ran towards the calls for her assistance. Meeting her halfway, Martin and Dukeman dragged Blithe towards the medic by his webbing. 

As the rest of the company provided covering fire as Welsh had instructed, Annie dropped her medic bag on the ground before kneeling down next to Blithe. Annie's left hand immediately pressed hard on the wound on Blithe's neck while the other dug into her pack for sulfa and a bandage. 

"Take it easy, Blithe," Martin told his fellow trooper.

With her hands covered in blood, Annie ripped the sulfa package open and poured the white powder into the bullet wound. She heard Welsh call for the men to cease fire, but she wasn't sure if she actually noticed when the gunshots stopped. The only thing she was paying attention to was Blithe and the way his big, blue eyes stared up at her. 

He didn't say a word, but she could tell he was praying to live. 

When Eugene arrived a few seconds later, he provided Annie with some much-needed help and the two medics worked fast and smart to prevent Blithe from bleeding out. 

Annie didn't hear Winters tell the men that they were being pulled off of the front lines, she didn't see Welsh's panicked eyes as he stared down at Blithe, and she didn't hear Nixon grumble something about being benched. 

Annie's attention was strictly on Blithe until they arrived back to the aid station where he would be loaded up and sent to the general hospital, and although she was confident in the fact that he would recover fully, Annie wasn't sure she would ever be able to forget the way he looked up at her with those wide, bright blue eyes. 

There was something in Blithe's eyes, even after the fight outside of Carentan, that held great bouts of innocence. War would change him, just like it changed everyone else, but somehow, Annie felt that he would be okay. 

Sometimes even the small comforts of knowing someone would be okay was the difference between surviving and truly living. 


	23. Purple Heart

Being back in a field camp was a welcomed change of pace for Easy Company. Even though being pulled off of the front lines was somewhat offensive to the troopers with large egos, the men and women couldn't deny that the warm food, real beds, fresh ODs, and showers were too good to pass up.

Annie was among the happiest by far, and as she strolled down the dirt path towards the mess hall, she relished in the feeling of not having to worry about someone dying. Of course, the thought was always there, gnawing away at the back of her brain, but at least she was able to forget it existed for a few minutes every once in a while.

Hearing the cheerful conversations among the men, the small medic was just about to find a seat at one of the tables when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, Annie was greeted by Winters. "Oh, sir," she smiled up at him. "Hello."

"Hello, Private Winslow." Winters returned the smile. "Do you have a minute to speak? I just need a few minutes with you and Corporal Kessler." 

Annie nodded as she began to follow Winters to a quieter area. When they arrived at the small building that was being used as one of the many Battalion offices, Margot was already waiting inside. Winters closed the door and gestured for the women to take a seat.

Annie turned to Margot, searcher her expression for any clues that would tell her why they were there, but there was nothing. Margot was just as unaware of the reason for them being there as she was. Lowering herself into one of the chairs, Annie cleared her throat. "Sir, forgive me for sounding like a child for asking this," she began. "But, are we in trouble?"

Winters let out a small chuckle and shook his head. "No, no trouble at all. In fact, as far as I know, I only have good news today."

Both Annie and Margot felt the weight on their shoulders lift. Once they were relaxed and comfortable, Winters clasped his hands together and got straight to the point. "Colonel Sink has been in contact and he wishes that I relay to you his appreciation and pride for your work thus far in the Airborne. He has been made aware of your many successes, such as your help destroying the German garrison on D-day Private Winslow, and your bravery during the taking of Carentan Corporal Kessler. He feels — and of course, I couldn't agree more — that both of you have earned promotions. So, first and foremost, I would like to congratulate you, Corporal Winslow and Sergeant Kessler on your promotions."

The women's faces lit up. "Thank you, sir." Margot was the first to speak. 

Annie nodded in agreement with Margot's appreciation. "Thank you."

Winters couldn't help but smile himself when he saw the pride and joy spread through the women. He had hoped from the very beginning that the caring medic and the sharp-witted machine-gunner would succeed, and thus far, they had done nothing but. 

"Next item on the agenda. As you are probably aware, we have replacements in to bring the company numbers back up to full force," Winters explained. "These new men are much less experienced and have much less training than the original group that came from Toccoa, so they will be needing some teaching. Corporal Winslow, you will be assisting Docs Roe and Spina in getting the replacements up to speed with basic first aid, and Sergeant Kessler, you will be getting a new partner."

Margot's face twisted with confusion. "Sir?" she inquired. "I thought Smokey returned from the hospital this morning?"

"That he did," Winters confirmed, confusing the girl even more. "But Battalion feels it would be more productive to pair the replacements up with some of the more, for lack of a better word, capable gunners. Walter Gordon will also be receiving a new partner, just so you don't think this is solely a punishment for you."

Margot nodded along with Winters' words. In all honesty, the reasoning behind the change-up made sense so she wasn't all that bothered by it. She was definitely going to miss the team dynamic she and Smokey had, but the only thing she really worried about was if her new partner was any good at all. "Sir, my new partner? Do you know who he will be?"

Winters picked up a file from a stack on the edge of the desk and flipped through it. "Ugh..." his eyes scanned the page. "Heffron. Edward Heffron."

"Edward Heffron," Margot repeated the name. She had never heard of him before, but that wasn't too shocking since he  _was_  new and she had only been back in England with the rest of Easy for a few days. 

"Is that all, sir?" Annie asked.

"Yes, I believe so." Winters stood up and headed for the door. "Oh, actually," he remembered something and dug an envelope out of his jacket. "For you, Corporal Winslow. Vest was handing them out earlier and since I knew I was going to see you, I said I would give it to you."

Annie took the letter, took note of the familiar handwriting on the front, and tucked it away. "Thank you, sir." 

"Enjoy the rest of your day," Winters told the women. 

Thrilled about their promotions, Margot and Annie picked up their new jackets that identified them with their new ranks before finally getting a chance to join the men in the mess hall. The men of Easy were laughing and talking among themselves, and upon seeing a familiar figure with crutches, Margot ran up and greeted her friend.

"Hey, there she is!" Smokey pulled Margot in for a hug, which was awkward because of the crutches. "Where you been, Margot? Been looking for you all day."

Margot spotted her chance and took it. Turning to the side, the proud machine-gunner dramatically showed off her brand new chevrons to the men of her company. "Um, I think you mean _Sergeant_  Kessler." 

The men whooped and hollered for the woman who was being as un-humble as one could be. "Don't forget about  _Corporal_  Winslow!" Margot hyped up her friend who was quietly sitting down and hoping to avoid being the center of attention. The yelling was even louder. 

"Okay, enough about you two." Smokey joked as he turned the attention back on himself again. "Everyone, listen up."

Margot laughed to herself as she took a seat across from Guarnere and beside Annie. "What's that idiot up to?" she asked, her thumb jabbing towards Smokey. 

Before her friend could answer, Smokey began. "The night of the bayonet." Smokey looked really pleased with himself as he recited the poem he had written in the hospital; three purple heart medals hanging from his uniform as he did. "The night was filled with dark and cold, when Sergeant Talbert  — the story's told — pulled on his poncho and headed out, to check the lines dressed like a Kraut. Upon a trooper our hero came, fast asleep he called his name. 'Smith, oh Smith. Get up, it's time to take your turn out on the line.' Private Smith, so very weary, cracked an eye, and red and bleary. Grabbed his rifle but did not tarry, hearing Floyd, but seeing Gerry."

The room burst into laughter and even Annie couldn't help herself from cracking up. Smith was looking beyond mortified, and even Talbert didn't look too impressed, but the rest of the Easy men thought the poem was hysterical. 

"'It's me' cried Tab, 'don't do it', and yet, Smith charged tout de suite with bayonet." Smokey's grin was huge as he finished. "He lunged, he thrust, both high and low, and skewered the boy from Kokomo."

Margot was nearly on the verge of tears by the time the poem had finished, as were many of the men around her. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Guarnere spun around and started talking to a red-haired replacement, but she was too focused on Smokey to care much.

"Since you weren't wounded by the enemy, and thus didn't qualify for a purple heart, we've taken matters into our own hands." Smokey plucked one of the medals off of his uniform and held it out to Talbert. "Tab, this is for you."

"I could have shot the kid a dozen times," Talbert stated. "I just didn't think we could spare a man."

Annie snorted and turned around to face him. "Yeah, so instead you just screamed like a girl for hours on end." The men began howling at the small, usually quiet medic's insult. Annie had been known to fire back here or there, but usually, only with the men she felt most comfortable with. 

Margot clapped her hands together along with the rest of the men before looking back at Smokey. "Yeah, and what about the other two?" she called over the general amusement, referring to the remaining medals on his uniform. 

Smokey grinned even wider. "Why I'm glad you asked." he pulled another purple heart off of his chest. "Despite how much you tried to hide it, everyone here knows about the wound you suffered — and are still suffering from because you refuse to go to the hospital — on D-day. Although no one knows how you got it because that secret it kept tighter than Hoobler's virginity, we also felt you deserved one."

Margot felt heat rise to her cheeks as Smokey hobbled his way over to her and handed her the second of three purple hearts. "You're the best." Margot wrapped her arm around his shoulder and gently squeezed, careful not to aggravate his injury.

"Anything for my partner." Smokey leaned his crutches against the table beside himself. "Missed hearing you bark orders in my ear."

Margot's heart sunk a little. "Didn't you hear?" she inquired, cocking a brow. "They're splitting up some of the gunner teams so that the replacements don't fuck everything up. Winters is giving us new partners."

"Awh, are you kidding me?" Smokey grumbled. "You and I, we're a good team."

Luz, who was on the other side of Annie, looked to Margot. "Any idea who you're stuck with?"

Margot shrugged. "Some shmuck...Edward Heffron or something. Probably doesn't know his head from his ass."

The table went quiet. Margot looked around, unsure as to why her words had caused such a reaction. Usually, something like that would get at least a few chuckles. Clearing his throat, Guarnere gestured to the red-haired replacement beside him. "Margot, have you met Heffron?"

Margot's jaw fell open and she went silent. That's when the table decided to laugh; only when it was at her expense. "Edward Heffron." the young looking guy stuck his hand out as a gesture of good faith. "I'm pleased to tell you that I do, indeed, know my head from my ass."

Margot shook her new partner's hand before slowly rubbing her face with her palms. "I'm so sorry." she apologized right away. "I'm, ugh...I'm sure you're a great guy."

"No worries, ma'am." he addressed her in a way she wasn't usually addressed. His accent sounded a lot like Guarnere's so she was sure that's why the two had been talking before. 

The corners of Guarnere's mouth curled upward as he let out one of his little snickers. "Don't worry about Sergeant Kessler," he assured the replacement. "She's less of a cactus and more of a rose bush once you get to know her."

"You make me sound like a horrible person." Margot feigned being offended. "Even though I did just insult this poor kid right in front of him."

"It's probably because you  _are_  a horrible person." Joe Toye, who was sitting at the opposite end of the table, spoke up. 

Margot furrowed her brows at the man who was smirking back at her, but just as she was about to throw a quip his way, Lipton made his way to the front of the hall and called for everyone's attention. 

"Couple of announcement. Listen up." Lipton cleared his throat as the hall quieted down. "First, the training exercise scheduled for 2200 has been cancelled." The hall broke out into applause once again, but Lipton just held his hands up, reminding everyone that there was still more. "Secondly, all passes are hereby revoked. We're heading back to France, so pack up your gear. We will not be returning to England. Anyone who has not made out a will, go to the supply office. Trucks depart for Membury at 0700. As you were."

The news fell over the men and women of Easy Company like a sopping wet blanket. No one was cheering, no one was laughing, hell, there wasn't even anybody smiling anymore. The once happy and light-hearted atmosphere had vanished in a matter of seconds.

Sighing, Annie reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the letter that Lieutenant Winters had given her earlier. After seeing the name of the sender on the front, she had originally planned to open and read the letter later on because she honestly wasn't expecting to like what she was going to read. 

However, after receiving the news that she wouldn't be returning to England, her mood was already down the drain anyway. "Might as well get this over with." Annie huffed as she ripped the envelope open and began to read its contents.

 

_Dearest Annie,_

_After getting your last letter I miss you more and more every day. I miss seeing your smile, I miss hearing you laugh, and I miss smelling the mouth-watering aroma of your famous banana bread; but most of all, I miss you, Annie._

_However, it has become very clear to me that you might not miss me as much as I miss you. There is no indication in your letters that you plan on coming home anytime soon even though I requested nicely and out of only what was best for you. I know I promised to wait for you, but the wait is becoming unbearable._

_That is why my dearest Annie, with a heavy heart, I must let you go. Not only for my sake but for yours as well. This is what you want, and I wish I could be happy for you, I really do, but when I look around all I can see is the life we promised to have together slowly slipping from our fingertips._

_I'm aware some of my letters may have come off as condescending and rude, and for that, I apologize. Never did I ever imagine that you going away would be this hard for me, but it is, and I do not wish to part on bad terms._

_When you return I would like it if we could speak again, but I am fully aware you are moving on without me already, so please don't try to stop me from doing the same._

_Perhaps, in a different life, we could have been together, happy and faithful, for many years; but here and now, I'm afraid it just isn't meant to be._

_Steve Riddick_

 

Annie hadn't noticed that the whole table had gone quiet, she hadn't noticed that everyone was staring at her, and she hadn't noticed that at some point she had started to cry. She wasn't bawling or screaming, but a few single tears had dripped from her eyes and began to run down her cheeks. Her breathing was shallow and her free hand was clutching her chest. 

Annie had been so entranced by the letter that even after she had finished reading it her eyes stayed glued to the page. She wasn't sure why she was so upset, because if she was honest with herself, she had seen this coming from a mile away. Maybe it was the way Steve spoke to her like he used to again, or because for once, it finally felt like he understood her in his own, twisted way. Whatever the reason being, she suddenly wasn't ready to say goodbye to the only man she had ever truly loved.

Margot watched her friend carefully, and when she noticed that Annie's eyes had stopped moving back and forth across the page, she rested a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" she whispered just loud enough for Annie alone to hear.

Standing up, Annie gently sat the letter down on the table before calmly walking out of the mess hall. She didn't say a word, she didn't look at anyone, she just left.

Picking up the paper, Margot scanned the letter quickly while the men watched her. "Oh, that asshole!" she finally exclaimed when she got to the end. 

"What? Is it her family?" Luz asked. "You gotta tell us something, you're killing us here!"

"She got a Dear John letter...or in this case, I guess, a Dear Jane letter." Margot folded the paper up and tucked it away. She wasn't sure if Annie would ever want it back, but she decided to keep it safe just in case. "Her boyfriend, Steve. He dumped her."

The men at the table showed varying degrees of anger at Steve and sympathy for Annie, but neither of them made a move to go after the girl. It was clear that they wanted to, but Margot assumed they weren't sure exactly how to help.

"I'll go talk to her in a little bit." Margot took the pressure off of the guys. "I'm just gonna give her some time to cool down and collect her thoughts."

While Margot sat quietly with the rest of the men, wondering how such a good day went so downhill so fast, Annie was heading back down the dirt path away from the mess hall. The small blonde had wiped her tears away and had gotten her breathing under control, but she still felt a numbing sort of pain in her chest. 

"Corporal Winslow!" a voice called. Spinning around, Annie spotted Lipton walking over to her. "I wanted to congratulate you on your promotion." he smiled before getting closer and noticing the girl's red, puffy eyes. "Hey, are you okay?"

Annie nodded quickly and wiped her eyes again. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." she tried her best to play it off as if it were nothing. The medic silently hoped he wouldn't ask any more questions.

"Oh, hey, it's okay." Lipton placed a hand on Annie's shoulder and squeezed gently. "I know it sucks that we're not going back to England, but it'll be okay. I'm sure you're not the only one who's upset about the news."

Annie stared back at Lipton for a while before her frown cracked into a smile and she let out an airy laugh. "I'm not upset because we're going to France." Annie couldn't help but feel amused at the Sergeant's assumption. "No, no. It's not that. That honestly doesn't bother me in the least right now."

Lipton furrowed his brows as he looked back at the small girl. One second it looked as if she had been crying, the next, she was laughing as if he had told a joke. "What...what's wrong then?"

"I got a...oh, what are they called again?" Annie wracked her brain for the right term. "...Dear John letter." she finally remembered the name. "Yeah...my boyfriend...well, he's not my boyfriend anymore..."

Lipton's face fell. "Oh, I'm sorry." he gave his sympathy to the sweet medic. "Hey, if he's crazy enough to let you go then you're probably better off without him anyway."

Annie sniffled slightly. "Thanks, Lip."

When Margot finally decided that it was time to check on her friend, she was surprised to find Annie sitting on the top of a wooden fence with Sergeant Lipton, talking and laughing away as if she hadn't just received heart-breaking news. Margot smiled at the sight, watching for a minute or so before turning and heading back into the mess hall.

Margot knew that Annie, at one point in her life at least, had truly loved Steve. However, she had witnessed first hand as Annie grew as a person since her first day at Camp Mirage, and she knew the girl could and would find someone better. 

It was just a matter of time.


	24. Bullseye

Margot's eyes were trained on the dartboard in front of her. Lifting her hand, she stared straight ahead, visualizing exactly where she wanted the dart to go. However, her focus was disrupted when a figure appeared and loomed over her like a dark thunder cloud. Turning her head to the side a little, Edward 'Babe' Heffron was smiling back at her.

"Heffron, you're crowding me." Margot motioned for her partner, both in machine-gunning and darts, to step back a little. "I can't concentrate when you're breathing down my neck, literally."

"Sorry." Babe gave her some room and joined the rest of the men at a reasonable distance. 

Turning her head back toward the board, Margot lifted her hand again, breathed in, and on the exhale tossed the dart at the board. With a glorious  _thud_ , the dart stuck into the cork of the board a few inches to the left of the bullseye. "Oh, that's how it's done!" Margot pumped her fist into the air before moving to the side for the next player.

After arriving back in Aldbourne, England and finding a little pub with a dart board, Buck Compton had pestered Margot to no end about finally playing that round of darts they had talked about when they first met. Eventually, Margot gave in and took him up on his offer; and so far she wasn't regretting it.

"Alright now, Lieutenant," Luz spoke encouragingly to his partner as Buck stepped up to take his turn. "Nice and easy. We've still got a shot."

"Don't listen to him, Buck." Margot teased as she folded her hands over her chest. "There's no hope. You might as well give up now."

Ignoring the chattering onlookers, Buck aimed, fired, and groaned when the dart landed in the outer most ring of the board. "Tough break, you're having a tough night." Luz comforted Buck as Margot and Babe high-fived. "People have tough nights."

"I'm sorry, George." Buck apologized, causing Margot to snicker a little. It was very amusing to the woman how seriously the men were taking the game. 

With a cigar hanging out of his mouth, Bull collected the darts from the board and handed them back. "Nice shot, Sir," he smirked at Lieutenant Compton. 

"Thank you, Bull." Buck took the darts and handed them over to Babe. 

As Heffron moved forward to take his turn, Margot eyed him down. "No pressure, but if you fuck this up I will make you carry double ammo for a week."

Babe just scoffed. "Double seven," he called before tossing the dart and hitting the exact mark he had predicted. 

"Oh!" Margot shared a look of amusement with Toye and Martin. "Good to know my partner has some aiming ability. You ain't half bad, Heffron."

It had been a few months since Margot had first met her new machine-gunner partner, and although she had been apprehensive about him at first, he worked hard to prove himself. Sure, he was no Smokey, but he was getting there, and the best part was that he rarely complained about carrying all the extra shit or being the assistant gunner. 

He was a good partner, and after witnessing first hand some of the trainwrecks that had arrived with the replacements, Margot was beyond thankful that she got one with some common sense and skill. 

Wrapping his arm around Babe's shoulder, Guarnere laughed. "You're embarrassing the Lieutenant, here." he handed the redhead a beer. "Have a drink."

Heffron accepted the drink happily and took a sip. "You better start winning some money soon." Guarnere looked over at the table of replacements. "I think your buddies are starting to miss you."

"Yeah, they do look kind of sad, don't they?" Heffron shrugged as the group watched the three replacements, Garcia, Miller, and Hashey, talk among themselves.

"They're just serious fighting men, that's all." Bull took a puff of his cigar. 

Guarnere watched the young men for a few more seconds before turning to his friends. "Well, I think I'm gonna go introduce myself."

"That's a great idea." Margot rolled her eyes playfully. "Go scare the new guys."

Holding a hand out to stop Guarnere, Bull looked down at him. "Careful what you say, now. Don't take much to set my guys off."

The small group broke out into quiet laughter. "Yeah, and you got some wild-eyes killers right there, Bull." Martin mocked.

As the men continued making jabs at Bull's replacements, Margot turned around to order a drink from the bartender. As the tall, raven-haired woman waited for her beer, she spotted Annie sitting across the bar at a small table in the corner with Lipton and Liebgott. 

Margot smiled to herself. Even though she tried to hide it, Annie had been affected by the letter Steve had sent her back in Normandy. The breakup had hit her hard and for a little while she kept pretty much kept to herself, but now she was starting to come back around to her old self again with the help of old friends, like Margot and Luz, and some people she had more recently bonded with, like Lipton and Liebgott. 

When the glass of beer was placed down in front of her, Margot gave the bartender a thankful nod and walked over to where Buck and Luz were chatting with Heffron. "You know, it's a good thing we weren't gambling." Margot heard Buck say as she joined the conversation. 

Luz nodded enthusiastically. "Oh boy, we would've gotten killed."

Heffron looked to Margot for a brief second before catching Buck's attention. "You wanna bet?"

"No, I'm not a gambling man." Buck refused as Luz shook his head.

Heffron turned to Margot again and bumped her with his shoulder. "You're in, right?" he cocked a brow. "One more game. Bet's on this time."

Margot thought for a moment, carefully weighing the pros and cons, before shrugging. "Yeah, sure, why not?" she agreed for the heck of it. Based on the way Buck and Luz were playing that not, she pretty much had nothing to lose.

"A pack of smokes." Toye egged on the two men. 

Buck's eyes shifted in contemplation before he spoke again. "First one to hit the bullseye?" he suggested. 

"Yeah, one shot." Margot set her beer down on the nearest table. "One pack of smokes?"

"Two packs." Luz increased the stakes. 

Margot and Heffron shared a glance before agreeing to the terms of two packs for whoever could hit the bullseye first. "Alright, two packs, one shot." Buck stepped up to take the first turn. 

As Buck aimed up his shot, really getting into the preparation with his whole body, Luz leaned over. "Lieutenant, are you gonna shoot lefty all night?" he asked, which immediately made Margot's eyebrows shoot up. "Just curious 'cuz he's right-handed." 

"George, what would I do without George Luz?" Buck laughed as he switched the dart to his right hand, took the shot, and hit the bullseye first shot. 

The two men cheered in victory as Margot tried to process what had just happened. "No!" she jabbed her finger at them. "You swindled us!"

"Two packs." Buck turned to the losing team, the grin on his smug little face wider than ever. 

Joe placed sympathetic hands on the shoulders of Margot and Heffron as they each dug out a pack of smokes from their pocket. "I hate you with every fiber of my being." Margot narrowed her eyes at Luz as he gleefully plucked the pack from her hand. 

When the losing team turned around in shame, they overheard Guarnere telling the replacements the story about how Heffron had received a 'Dear John' letter right before they were supposed to jump into France. Long story short, there was a pinup woman painted on the nose of the plane with the same name as the woman who had dumped Heffron. This was the woman who used to address her letters to him as 'Babe', hence his nickname. 

"Well, anyway, lucky for Babe, Patton overruns our drop zone." Guarnere finishes up the tale. "Mission cancelled, in other words, Babe don't have to risk getting inside old Doris again."

Guarnere laughed hard at his own joke before twisting around to look up at Bull. "Hey, Bull, your squad listens up real good."

A sly grin spread across Martin's face. "Yeah, they're being polite like whenever Bull opens his mouth."

"Johnny, what are you saying?" Guarnere stuck a cigarette between his lips before lighting it. "Bull's boys are just humoring him?"

"Yeah, like whenever he gives out some of his folksy wisdom from back down on the farm." Martin chortled.

"Awh," Margot gave Bull a pat on the back. "I like your folksy wisdom, Bull." 

Guarnere scoffed. "Probably think he's a fucking hayseed. Ain't that right?"

The replacements snickered at Guarnere's quip. "What are you laughing at?" Martin glared them down, his face stern as he messed with the young guys. When the smiles disappeared from their faces, Martin smirked again. 

"You new boys, you pay attention to Sergeant Randleman. Got that?" Guarnere gave some solid advice to the replacements. "That's the smartest man in the company."

"You guys are so mean to the new guys." Margot chastised the men as Guarnere got up from the table and re-joined them. "Cut 'em some slack, will you?"

Martin turned to face Margot. "Didn't one of them call you 'broad' the other day?"

Margot's tongue stuck out of her mouth slightly as she recalled the incident from a few days before. "Ah, you're right," she remembered, her green eyes shifting to stare at the man who had called her the offensive name. "Fuck 'em. Mess with them all you want."

As Margot busied herself with another conversation, Annie remained at the other side of the bar, quietly talking with Lipton and Liebgott about this and that. The three had looked over occasionally to witness Margot and Heffron lose in darts or Guarnere laugh at his own story, but besides that, they were content with staying in their own little bubble.

Annie was never one to drink or smoke, so she usually tended to stay away from the big crowds who would always, one way or another, try to get her to have a beer. She knew they weren't trying to be mean about it, but sometimes she just got tired of saying 'no thanks' over and over again.

"But anyway," Annie continued telling the two men about her family back home. "Timothy is absolutely over the moon every time I send him a letter with a cool story from one of our missions. I, of course, make it a little more kid friendly because he is only ten, but man, he loves it."

"He sounds like a little paratrooper in the making," Lipton commented before taking a small sip of his beer.

Annie nodded. "Oh, he most definitely is. In my last letter from home, my mom told me that he likes to jump off of the couches and hold a bedsheet over his head like a parachute."

Liebgott smiled wide at the thought of a little boy jumping off of a couch with a bedsheet. "Sounds like something I would have done." he tapped his fingers slowly against his glass. "I wanna meet this little guy."

"Oh, I'm sure he would love to meet you, too," Annie assured her friend from across the small, circular table. "In one of my letters I told him about how you helped me when Tipper was hit in Carentan and he wrote back saying that he wanted to be just like you when he grew up. Well, he spelled your name wrong though, so actually, he wants to be like some guy called 'Lebgoat', whoever that is."

The small group laughed a little and before long Annie was telling them all about her other siblings. She talked about her younger sister Julia and how she was taking painting classes at the local youth centre, and she even mentioned her older brother Philip, who would have been serving his country as well if it weren't for the fact that he was half deaf. 

The men listened to the small medic with great intrigue, happy that she was back on her feet again and even more happy that she was beginning to really open about her life before the war. The blonde girl was heaps more interesting than either of them had ever imagined. 

As Liebgott finished his last sip of beer, he pushed his chair back and stood up. "Gonna get another." he gestured to his empty glass. "Anyone else?"

"I'm good." Lipton eyed his still half-full glass and shook his head.

Standing up as well, Annie walked around the small table. "I'll come with." she offered. "I need another water."

As the two made their way over to the bar, pushing past and through crowds of drunk troopers, they made small talk here and there. After ordering their drinks, they stood nearby and waited, their ears full of the different conversations going on around them. 

 "Where'd you get that?" Annie watched Cobb walk up to one of the replacements and point to the pin on his uniform. 

The younger man looked down at the pin and then back up at Cobb. "It's a presidential distinguished unit citation. For what the regiment did in Normandy."

"That's right, for what the regiment did." Cobb was clearly drunker than he should be. "You weren't there."

Looking down, the man, Miller, slowly began to unpin the citation from his jacket. "Hey, no, don't take it off." Annie pushed herself away from the bar and toward the confrontation. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't help herself from interjecting. "You don't have to take it off if Cobb doesn't have to, because he wasn't there either. Isn't that right, Cobb?" 

Cobb's drunk glare turned on the medic. "What do you know about it,  _girl_?"

"I know I heard you screaming like a child when you got hit with that plane shrapnel." Annie stood up for the replacement. "You screamed more getting hit by shrapnel than Talbert did getting stabbed in the stomach."

In a fit of anger, Cobb lunged forward and pushed the table towards the small girl. Annie jumped back quickly as the screech of the chair legs sliding across the wooden floor caught the attention of a few people nearby. "You shut your mouth!" Cobb snapped as he slammed his glass down on the table. 

As Liebgott stepped up and started telling Cobb off, Margot pushed her way through the forming crowd. "Hey, everyone, let's just cool off and-" Margot started, but the sound of Cobb punching Liebgott square in the jaw cut her off. 

Within seconds, the far side of the bar had turned to chaos. Men were jumping up to hold Cobb back, Annie was holding a napkin over Liebgott's split lip, and Margot was about ready to kill the drunk bastard. "Keep that up and you won't be jumping out of the next plane either!" Margot's calm composure dissolved as she stormed toward the asshole who had yelled at her one friend and punched the other. 

Just as Margot was about to get into Cobb's face and give him a well-deserved verbal smackdown, a pair of hands wrapped around her waist and started to carry her off. "Okay now, let's not do something we're gonna regret in the morning." she heard Toye's voice in her ear. 

Margot calmed down a little as Joe put her feet back on the ground. "I'm gonna shove that unit citation so far up his-"

"Hey, y'all, listen up!" Smokey called from the other side of the bar as he stood up on a chair so everyone could see him. "I got us an announcement to make." he grabbed Lipton, who was talking to a few of the other men, by the shoulders. "This here is Carwood Lipton."

"He's already married, Smokey." Malarkey rolled his eyes, being one of the few who hadn't noticed the previous altercation on the other side of the bar. 

Smokey laughed. "This here is Carwood Lipton. The new Easy Company 1st Sergeant." everyone in the bar took the time to applaud Lipton, even if their anger was getting the best of them. "As befitting this position, he says he has to make an announcement."

Lipton cleared his throat at Smokey stepped down from the chair he had been standing on. "Well, hate to break the mood here, but we're moving out again."

The room was silent, just like it had been when Lipton had announced their move to France back when they were staying in that field camp in Normandy. The fun atmosphere was gone; out of sight like a rock floating to the bottom of a muddy lake. 

"Well, shit..." Margot trailed off, her arm still firmly in Joe's grasp. "At least we got to play some darts while we could."

As the bar slowly filled with light conversation again, Annie led Liebgott back to their table so she could make sure he was okay. Lipton had left, probably because he didn't want to be around after making that announcement, so it was just the two of them. 

"I'm fine, really." Liebgott insisted as Annie removed the napkin from his lip. 

Annie inspected the injury carefully, but thankfully it just looked a little swollen and bruised. "You shouldn't have stepped in like that," she told him matter-of-factly. "I mean, I appreciate it, I do, but I don't think he would have done anything to me except yell."

"We'll call it even then," Liebgott suggested, earning a confused look from the medic. "You know, I hit you on the ship, and now I've been hit defending your honour. It's even."

"Okay." Annie chuckled as she sat back in her chair. "Even."


	25. Operation Market Garden

"As you can see, this is called Operation Market Garden." Winters traced his finger along with the bolded words above the map. "In terms of Airborne divisions involved, this one's even bigger than Normandy. We're dropping deep into occupied Holland. The allied objective is to take this road here, between Eindhoven and Arnhem, so that two British armoured divisions can move up it toward Arnhem. Our job is gonna be to liberate Eindhoven. Stay there, wait for the tanks."

Margot's leg shook nervously as she listened to the briefing. Somehow, she felt more worried about this jump than her first one into Normandy. Feeling a hand on her knee, Margot shared a look with Annie. By the look on the blonde girl's face, and just about everyone else's, no one was even the least bit excited. 

"The entire European advance has been put on hold to allocate resources for this operation." Nixon, the company intelligence officer, took over the presentation. "It's Montgomery's personal plan and we'll be under British command."

A series of groans escaped the mouths of the troops. As much as the British were good at their jobs, it was never fun being under their command. They sometimes had a certain...bias against the Americans. 

"The good news is, if this works, these tanks will be over the Rhine and into Germany." Nixon continued, trying his best to lift the spirits of Easy Company. "It could end the war and get us home by Christmas. It'll be a day-time jump. Intelligence doesn't expect much opposition. They think the Krauts in Holland are mostly kids and old men. And we should take 'em by surprise. In any case, say goodbye to England. I don't think they're gonna call this one off."

●●● 

Being back on the tarmac was a surreal feeling for the men and women of Easy Company. In many ways, it felt like D-day all over again, and in many other ways, it didn't. The words of Winters about the jump into Holland being even bigger than Normandy stuck with the troops. 

Even so, everyone had expected to be shipped out again sooner or later. They didn't join the Airborne so they could sit around drinking and playing darts, as much fun as that would be. 

"Guarnere, give this strap a tug, will you?" Margot held one of her webbing straps out to him. "I can't get it to sinch up the last few inches."

Grabbing the strap from the woman's hand, Guarnere gave it a hard tug downwards, pulling her down with it. "Jesus." Margot groaned, still happy to see the strap had tightened all the way up. "Thanks."

Everyone was a little on edge at the moment, which was to be expected; what  _wasn't_  expected, however, was when Popeye and Sobel rolled up in a jeep. Eyes followed Sobel as he passed by, almost as if he wasn't really there and people had to make sure they weren't seeing things. It had been ages since anyone had seen or even heard about the former Captain, but there he was, stern looking as always.

"Holy-" Annie whispered as she froze. Never did she expect to ever again see the man who hated her most in the world

Sobel's eyes held an element of shock as he glared at the members of Easy Company, almost as if he hadn't expected any of them to survive that long. But what really surprised him was when he saw the two women among the men. If he had been asked to put money on it, he never would have guessed they made it any further than the jump into Normandy.

When the jeep came to a stop, Sobel hopped out, avoiding eye contact as he got to work at unloading some of the stuff in the trucks behind him. It didn't matter much though, because most were too busy welcoming Popeye back.

"Hiya, Popeye." Annie jogged over and greeted the first patient she had ever had in a combat zone. "How are you doing? I didn't think they'd let you out this soon."

Popeye smiled and gave the girl a hug as Lipton joined them. "They didn't let me out, I busted out. I didn't want to get reassigned to some other unit."

"Yeah?" Lipton was nothing but thrilled to see the man back with the company. "Can you make the jump?"

"Oh, sure I can, Lip, I just can't sit."

Sauntering over, the ever-present cigar hanging from the corner of his mouth, Bull shook hands with the hospital escapee. "Welcome back, Popeye."

"Popeye went AWOL just in time to jump." Lipton filled in the larger man on the details. 

Bull nodded as his eyes focused on something over Annie's shoulder. "What's he doing here?" 

"Who, Sobel?" Lipton asked. "Well, he's the newly appointed regimental S-4." 

Annie almost laughed. "Supply officer?"

Lipton nodded as Popeye went on to explain how he got there. "He picked me up in Aldbourne, trying to find you guys." he gestured to Sobel.

"He know you went AWOL?" Bull inquired.

"He knows. He just said I was lucky, I could sit out this jump if I wanted." Popeye still walked with a noticeable limp. "I said I didn't want to. So, he says 'hop in'."

Bull scoffed. "'Hop in'?"

"Yeah, I know, I couldn't believe it either." Popeye shrugged. "Hey, maybe he's gonna court-martial me later, huh?"

With a laugh, Lipton lead Popeye away to get him some gear for the jump, leaving Bull and Annie to watch in amusement as Sobel began to unload the very motorcycle that Malarkey had taken for a joyride back in Normandy. "Oh no." Annie stifled a laugh as Sobel confronted Malarkey about the bike.

"That's him alright," Bull mumbled over his cigar before taking off to help some of his replacements gear up properly. 

As the time to jump drew nearer and nearer, some of the nervous tension began to fade away inside of the men and women and was replaced with a deep desire to just get the damn thing over with. For those who had never jumped on the other hand, except for the practice jumps, the sick feeling in their stomach stayed with them until their feet left the plane. 

●●● 

On September 17, 1944, Easy Company dropped into Holland. As promised, it was a day jump and there was no opposition, so, for the most part, the whole thing went as smoothly as could be expected. 

Margot, however, wasn't exactly having the best time. As soon as her body was falling through the air she was hit with a sudden flashback of the events that had taken place on D-day. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweating, and as soon as she hit the ground, she just sort of laid there. Her shoot was tugging on her back and men were running all around her, but it took her a second to snap out of her trance. 

Before Margot could stand up, a pair of hands grabbed her by her webbing, pulled her to her feet, and unclipped her chute buckles. "You okay?" Heffron was standing in front of her, his eyes searching for an injury or something. 

"I'm fine," Margot said, her voice monotone as she caught Joe Toye looking at her from over Babe's shoulder. "I'm fine, yes." she hoisted the heavy M1 Browning over her shoulder and started running out of the field with the rest of the company, Babe following close behind. 

Once Margot got it through her head that what happened on D-day wasn't going to happen again, she was back to her normal self again in no time. 

Before long, everyone from the drop had convened in a ditch at the side of a dirt road. Annie watched quizzically as Hoobler and Cobb ran past with beer bottles in their hands and shared a look with Eugene. Neither medic had a single clue as to where they got them and honestly, neither cared. 

With a series of low, loud rumbles, planes flew overhead in the opposite direction that the troopers were heading, meaning that the air support was leaving. "That's a comforting sight." Annie sighed.

Turning around, Bull threw his arm into the air, signaling that they were moving out. Climbing out of the ditch, the group started making their way through a field. The grass was about waist high and the trek was long, but eventually, they came upon an old wooden fence that separated the field from the town of Eindhoven. 

As the shutters on the second story of a house opened, the troopers readied their weapons, waiting for what could possibly be a sniper. With bated breath, Margot watched as a woman hung an orange banner out of the window before tying it into place. When she looked up and saw the Americans, she just smiled. 

The town of Eindhoven was decorated top to bottom in orange, the colour of their resistance, and the streets were packed with grateful civilians. Never, in a million years, had anyone expected there to be a party waiting for them when they dropped into Holland. 

But there it was.

The citizens of the town danced and sang, some even going as far as to hug and kiss the Paratroopers. Obviously, they were beyond happy that the Americans were there to stop the Germans; or at least try to.

The Lieutenants tried their best to keep the platoons moving through the town, but with women throwing themselves at the men and kids jumping around like it was the best day of their lives, no one was too keen on leaving so soon.

Margot was smiling from ear to ear as men, women, and even kids came up to her, thanking her for her help and telling her how brave they thought she was. Although Margot knew she didn't join the Paratroopers for parties and affection, it was nice to be appreciated every once in a while. 

Annie was beside the taller woman, her eyes constantly flickering from face to face. She enjoyed the celebration, really, she did, but it was a tad overwhelming. There were  _so_  many people.

While some of the men, like Buck Compton, were enjoying the female attention they were receiving, others like Winters and Nixon weren't too pleased with the elaborate distraction from the task at hand. 

At one point, Margot and Annie were even dragged into taking a photo with some of the citizens and other troopers, but after the first flash from the camera, Margot spotted something that she couldn't just simply look away from. In the middle of the street a crowd was forming, and in the middle of the crowd, women were being pushed onto their knees. 

Untangling herself from Guarnere's and Babe's arms, Margot forced her way through the tightly packed crowd toward the quickly-growing mob. When she got closer, her eyes widened and her hand flew over her mouth in horror. Women were being stripped of their clothes, having their heads shaved, and getting swastikas drawn on their foreheads. 

One woman, who Margot could have sworn had been making out with Talbert earlier, was forcefully thrown onto the ground. The men around her, all of which had orange bands around their arms, started ripped her clothes off and cutting out large chunks of her hair with dull scissors. 

The people in the crowd were chanting something over and over again at the women in anger, but Margot couldn't understand it. All she could do was stand there and watch as these women were humiliated in front of the entire town. 

When Annie appeared beside Margot again, her reaction to the horrific sight was much of the same. The men of Easy Company watched as their female troopers stood there, frozen in terror and utterly appalled. 

"Hey." Winters came up from behind the women and placed his hands on their shoulders. "You shouldn't watch."

Without fighting it, Margot and Annie followed Winters back over to where he, Buck, and Welsh had been standing. "What...what did they do?" Annie squeaked out, her voice as small as she was.

"They slept with the Germans." a man, one of the citizens, said as he approached the group. "They are lucky. The men who collaborated are being shot."

Margot was about to spit hellfire towards the man and tell him off for considering those poor women 'lucky', but just then Nixon introduced him as the leader of the Dutch Resistance and she knew she had to keep her mouth shut. 

Disgusted with the actions and words she had just witnessed, Margot grabbed Annie by the arm and pulled her along through the crowd. As the people of Eindhoven began cheering once more for the arriving tanks, the two women tried the best they could to get away from the noise. 

Annie looked up at her friend and immediately noticed the fury in her eyes. Margot was always one to be able to laugh at a bad situation, so when she got so angry that she was at a loss for words, it was a telling sign that something truly fucked up was going on. While Annie knew that sleeping with the Germans probably wasn't the best idea, she wondered if it had been the women's choices in the first place at all. How were they supposed to know that they wouldn't be shot if they said no?

There would always be some things in the world that men would just never fully understand, and sadly, Margot and Annie had to learn to live with that. Especially since they were in a war, and war was a game run solely by men.


	26. Outnumbered and Outgunned

Easy Company spent the night after arriving in Eindhoven on the outskirts of town near some smaller farmhouses and homes. Most men were able to find citizens of the town who were more than happy to give them a place to stay for the night, but the few who didn't weren't all that bothered by sleeping among the soft grass and comfy piles of hay. It was a beautiful evening, and either way, it beat the hell out of sleeping in a foxhole.

Annie, who had been taken up by a lovely older couple along with a few of the other troopers from Easy Company, was sitting up on the couch in the living room with a pillow tucked behind her and a blanket draped over her body. It was late at night, so everyone else in the house was asleep or in their room for the evening, but Annie just couldn't sleep.

The hospitality the older couple had shown Annie from the minute she walked through the threshold had warmed her heart tremendously and made her think of home. The small blonde was missing her parents a great deal and as a consequence, couldn't find sleep that night. 

Reaching over, Annie turned on the small lamp beside the couch and leaned over to grab a letter out of her bag. Earlier that day, back before they had even made the jump into Holland, Vest had handed Annie a letter from home. 

With the small lamp providing a gentle, warm glow in the otherwise dark living room, Annie carefully opened the envelope and pulled the letter out. Before she could unfold it though, the sound of a step creaking caught her attention. Looking up, Annie noticed a shadowed figure coming down the stairs.

"Hello?" Annie asked. She was sure it was one of the guys sharing the house with her, but she wasn't positive on exactly who it was.

Stepping into the radius of light from the lamp, Liebgott rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "What are you still doing up?"

"Can't sleep." Annie shrugged. "Why are you up?"

Walking over, Liebgott sighed and sat down beside the girl. "I saw Tipper again...in my sleep." he confessed. "I got a letter from him a few weeks ago and he's doing good...getting sent home soon, but...I just keep seeing him. His eye...the bone sticking out of his leg...all of it."

Annie felt her heart hurt for her friend. "How's your face?" she asked, changing the subject even though she knew the blow he had taken from Cobb had healed completely only days after it had originally happened.

"I think I'm still as handsome as ever," Liebgott smirked. Annie kept her laugh to a minimum as to not wake anyone else, but when another set of footsteps could be heard, she knew she had failed.

The stairs squeaked just like they had before and soon Luz emerged from the darkness as well. He didn't even bother asking what was going on as he shuffled over and sat down on the other side of Annie. The three sat in silence for a while, just enjoying each other's company, before Annie remembered the letter in her hands.

"Got a letter from home," she whispered to the guys. "Haven't read it yet."

Leaning over, Luz rested his head on Annie's shoulder and closed his eyes. "Read it out loud." he requested.

Annie was hesitant at first. Sure, she often told the men about what was in the letters from home, but the only person she had ever read them out loud to before was Margot. Sometimes when Annie read the letters for the first time, she heard her parents voices, or even her siblings' voices, in her head and it made her miss home extremely. 

However, Annie eventually decided that she could trust Luz and Liebgott enough. Luz had always been kind to her, even sometimes before she climbed that dreaded wall in Toccoa and finally earned her respect. And Liebgott had taken a punch in the face for her, so he had proven himself. 

"Okay." Annie unfolded the letter and let the boys get comfortable before reading the words out loud in a hushed whisper. 

 

_Dear Antonia,_

_Your father and I are so happy to hear that you're enjoying your time in England. We've always wanted to visit there, so you'll have to tell us all about it when you get home. I've heard the countryside is beautiful and tranquil. Of course, I'm sure you don't have much time to admire the scenery very often, but you should. Whenever you can my dear, take the time to enjoy the moment. You only get so many moments in life._

_To answer the question in your last letter, yes, Timothy is still jumping off of furniture with a bedsheet over his head. He is starting to escalate to bigger jumps off of higher things, so everyone in the house has to stay on high alert to make sure he doesn't break a leg. A new development, however, is that he has also started strapping a cardboard box to his back and calling himself a radioman. Whenever you write about one of your friends he always makes us explain to him exactly what it is so he can plan his next 'mission' accordingly. Through this, everyone is learning a great deal about the different jobs of a Paratrooper._

_Julia is still loving her painting classes, and last week she came home with a new painting of you. She said she wanted to make sure she didn't forget what you looked like, so she's started painting you a lot. I think she's starting to miss you more than she thought she would, but then again, so is everyone. The house feels different without you, my sweet girl, but I don't want you to worry about that. You've got enough to deal with, what with all those men to look after._

_I'm also very happy to hear that Margot is still doing well. You make sure to remind her that she is welcome at our place at any time. In fact, any of your friends are. They have become such a big part of your life and we would be honored to meet them all someday._

_We are all very sorry to hear about Steve. Philip and your father were especially mad, but I convinced them to just let it go. I'm sure you've been told this a million times by now, but as your mother, I feel I must also say it; you are better off without him. Any man who cannot see your kind heart and gentle soul is a foolish man._

_The whole family wishes you well and we can't wait to hear from you again. Receiving one of your letters is like receiving a Christmas gift a day early. Everyone sits down and reads it together, and sometimes, Julia even asks to be read them again at night instead of a bedtime story._

_Good luck, my sweet girl, and stay safe. We are all very proud of you, and we all love you very much. Next time I will try to send one of Julia's paintings as well._

_With love from the bottom of our hearts,_

_Mom, Dad, Philip, Timothy, & Julia_

 

By the time Annie had finished reading the letter, Liebgott had curled up with his head on Annie's lap and Luz had slumped down even further, though his head was still resting on her shoulder. Like a proud mother who had finally gotten her fussy kids to sleep with a bedtime story, Annie smiled wide. 

"You wrote home about me." Luz's voice was low as he shifted slightly to cover himself with the blanket. "I'm the radioman."

"You are the radioman." Annie folded the paper back up and tossed it onto the floor with the rest of her stuff, making a mental note to remember to stash it away with the rest of the letters in a safe place in the morning.

Reaching her arm over Luz's shoulder, Annie turned the lamp off again and the living room plunged back into darkness. Liebgott began to snore softly and Annie gently ran her fingertips through his messy and slightly dirty hair. 

With a relaxed exhale, Annie tilted her head to the side to rest it on top of Luz's and closed her eyes. Feeling safe and warm, the medic managed to find sleep that time, and within seconds the three Paratroopers were passed out together on the couch with a single blanket sprawled over them.

For the first time in years, Annie felt like she was home again; even if only for a fleeting moment. 

●●● 

Margot watched lazily as the field of purple flowers to her right swayed gently with the morning breeze. Easy Company was heading out to take another town, but since they had tanks with them, many of the troopers were able to catch a ride instead of walking. 

It was a rare luxury to not have to walk every once in a while, so the men and women took advantage of the opportunity whenever it presented itself. 

Smiling, Webster pointed out the sign with the name of the town on it as the tanks rolled past. "Vincent Van Gogh was born in Nuenen." he shamelessly showed off his Harvard education.

"Yeah?" Cobb was just as bitter as ever, almost as if his veins were filled with lemon juice. "So what?"

Hoobler peered at the sign before smirking at Webster. "They sure teach a lot of useful stuff at Harvard."

With a shake of the head, much like a mother would do after catching her sons play-fighting and just generally being boys, Margot turned away from the men and looked back out at the road and fields ahead. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a moving figure and squinted. There was a woman who looked like she had had most of her hair shaved off or ripped out, and in her arms was a bundle. At first, Margot thought the bundle was a bag or maybe just a pile of clothes, but as the tank brought her closer, she realized the bundle was a baby. 

Reaching into her bag, Margot pulled out a box of crackers and tossed them down to one of the men walking beside the tank. With a point of her finger, Margot motioned for the man to give the crackers to the woman. After receiving the small offering, the young mother smiled up at Margot before gently rocked her baby in her arms.

With a warm smile and a silent prayer, Margot watched as the mother and her child disappeared behind her. 

As the tanks neared the town, some of the men on foot dispersed into the ditches on the side of the road while one of the Lieutenants broke ahead of the tanks and pulled out his binoculars. Margot wasn't exactly sure what the lone man was trying to accomplish, but he was making a damn fine target for any Germans that may or may not be lurking in Neunen. 

"Hey, get a load of General Patton." Hoobler pointed at Lieutenant Brewer. "Makes quite a target, don't he?"

Coming to a stop, Brewer peered through his binoculars at the buildings in the distance. "Lieutenant!" Bull called.

Brewer spun around with his back towards the town. One second he was standing there, staring back quizzically at Bull, the next he was on the ground bleeding out from a bullet wound in the neck.

"Sniper!" men began to yell as Annie jumped to her feet and climbed down from the tank. Running towards the wounded man, the small medic spotted a German tank emerging from the treeline on her lefthand side. Her heart rate quickened at the sight, but her steps didn't falter for a moment. 

While the troopers jumped from the tanks and ran for the ditches, Annie dropped down next to Brewer and pulled out a syrette of morphine. Bullets were ricocheting off of the road all around the small medic, but she didn't stop her course of treatment for a second, not even when one of the bullets grazed her forearm. 

Annie hissed at the pain and noticed the tear in her ODs, but she was pouring sulfa in Brewer's bleeding neck wound and applying pressure all the while. "You are a crazy little lady!" Bull appeared beside the medic before ordering the men in the ditches to keep moving.

As Margot ran towards the farmhouse with the rest of the platoon, she watched as Annie worked quickly and diligently, her focus solely on her patient so much so that it seemed she didn't even know she was in a war zone. 

Seconds later, the rumble of one of the enemy tanks exploding shook the ground, but Annie was too busy holding her blood-soaked hands over the rapidly bleeding bullet wound to care. Hearing another pair of heavy feet, Annie looked up to see one of the other medics rushing towards her. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could make a sound he was shot down as well.

The second medic rolled around in agony as he clutched the thigh that had been hit. Annie knew Brewer was in worse condition and that the other medic was just as qualified as she was, so she decided to take a more verbal route. "You need to calm down and help yourself!" Annie shouted at the man, hoping her stern tone would knock some sense into him. "I can't take pressure off of this, so you need to reach into your bag and use your own supplies to treat yourself. You know what to do!"

"It hurts!" the second medic had lost all common sense when the bullet had pierced his leg. "Help me!"

Another bullet ricocheted off of the dirt and hit Annie in the foot, but she had no time to deal with herself; she needed to get moving as soon as she could because it was obvious the sniper was aiming for stationary targets. Gritting her teeth to hold back a scream that was waiting at the bottom of her lungs, Annie glared at the medic and lost it. "You need to stop acting like a fucking child and get your shit together!" her words seemed to finally work and the second medic froze in place. "Reach into your bag and treat your wound! I can't help you!"

Shaking from the blood loss and shock, the male medic removed one hand from his thigh and reached into his bag. Calmer now, Annie nodded and encouraged him as he treated himself with sulfa and a bandage. 

Once the blonde girl was confident in her fellow medic's ability to stay calm and rational, she turned her attention back to Brewer. Thankfully, the bleeding had slowed, allowing Annie to take a look and determine that the bullet had more grazed the neck than penetrated it. 

"Okay, time to get you guys out of the open." Annie looked behind her at the ditch that the men had once been crouched in and decided that it was probably the best place to take her patients. She didn't want to travel too far and risk agitating the injuries, but she had to go somewhere where she believed the men could be safe until they could get transported out. 

Looking up at the medic, Annie instructed him to stay low and still until she came back. Then, she grabbed Brewer by his webbing, told him to apply pressure to his own neck, and dragged him as quickly as she could to the ditch. Bullets peppered the dirt around her feet, and although the bullet graze on her foot hurt when she walked, Annie was able to get Brewer into the ditch without either one of them being hit.

When the firing ceased again and the sniper in the town went back to focusing on the rest of the platoon, Annie made a dash back over to her second patient. The male medic had calmed down significantly since first being hit, and now that he was in a more stable mindset, it made it easier for Annie to explain the plan to him before she grabbed him by the webbing as well and dragged him into the ditch. 

Once both men were safe, Annie reassessed the injuries and was relieved to find that neither of them had gotten any worse. "Good." Annie mumbled to herself before looking to the second medic. "Okay, I have to go into town to be there for the rest of the platoon, so I'm leaving you in charge here. Stay as still as possible and keep applying pressure to the wounds as best you can. When it's all clear, I'll come right back here. Do you understand?"

Shifting over, the male medic nodded and took over applying pressure on Brewer's neck wound. "Yeah, yeah..." he swallowed hard. "My leg should be fine so...thanks."

"Just doing my job." Annie flashed a quick smile before popping her head out of the ditch to make sure the coast was clear and taking off towards the town. 

Crouched in a ditch a few meters away from one of the main buildings, Margot waited for the remaining men and tanks to get into position. Bull was beside her giving out the orders, so she pretty much just did whatever he told her to do. In the frantic dash for cover, the machine-gunner had accidentally grouped up with 1st Platoon instead of 2nd, but Margot didn't mind in the slightest; she trusted Bull because he was a smart man, just like Guarnere had said at the bar in England. 

Leaning over, Bull tapped Margot on the shoulder and pointed at Martin and his group. "I want you to link up with them and help clear these buildings here, then meet back up with 2nd," he ordered. 

Nodding, Margot waved Martin down and signaled to him that she was coming over. She looked both ways like a child checking for cars and then, and when she believed it to be safe, sprinted across the open yard and met up with Martin and his group.

As Guarnere ran past with his men on his heels, Margot moved along the wall before kicking in the back door and clearing the building with a few others from top to bottom. After the small cluster of houses and buildings had been swept, Margot moved back outside again just in time to spot Buck Compton and his troops moving up towards her. 

Ducking down low, Margot used a small brick wall for cover as she tried to locate 2nd Platoon. In her search for her platoon, Margot's eyes locked on to what looked like a small tank hiding out in between two buildings. Moving further along down the wall to get a better look, Margot was able to confirm that there was indeed a German tank covered in grass and hay for disguise. 

Spotting Martin across the way, Margot waved him down once more before pointing in the direction of the tank. 'Tiger' she mouthed, knowing full well he wouldn't hear her even if she had tried to yell it. 

Martin followed the woman's finger and spotted the tank. Just then, the American artillery came rolling around the corner and down the road right toward the hidden Tiger. When Martin and Babe went running past toward the American tanks, Margot popped up from behind the wall and followed them. 

When the tank driver saw the three Paratroopers running towards him, he slowed the tank to a stop to allow them to approach. Standing in front to keep a lookout, Margot and Babe waited for Martin to climb onto the tank and speak to the driver. The engine of the military vehicle was too loud for either machine-gunner to hear what the Sergeant was saying, but when he jumped back down, the look on his face portrayed that the conversation hadn't gone too well.

"He's gonna see you real soon!" Martin shouted at the tank's main-gunner as the artillery started rumbling down the dirt road again.  

Margot was beyond confused as the tanks headed right for the Tiger, but there wasn't much she could do about it besides return to cover and watch the oncoming disaster unfold. 

As soon as the Tiger had a shot, it took it. The American tank exploded, sending smoke and shrapnel in all directions. "Fall back!" Bull shouted as the Tiger started to emerge from its hiding spot. 

In a matter of seconds, hellfire had begun to rain down on Easy Company. The remaining Germans came out of the woodwork as soon as their tank had jumped into action and bullets were flying in every direction imaginable. 

Another tank exploded nearby and burst into flames before continuing to roll slowly ahead down the road. All the men inside were most likely dead, but the engine was still running and the behemoth of a vehicle was still moving. 

Easy Company ran out of the town as fast as they could as the Germans unveiled more and more weapons. Margot could hear German shouting from behind her, but she forbid herself from looking back. Instead, she just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and getting as far away as possible.

 As much as it sucked to retreat, Margot was sure getting shot in the head sucked even more.

Buildings were being blown to bits all around and before long all of the American tanks in Neunen had been destroyed. Men were being shot left and right and the members of Easy were vastly outnumbered. 

With the help of Margot and Eugene, Annie was able to return to the male medic and Brewer just in time to help them evacuate before it was too late. Luz's voice could be heard as he shouted over the radio, but even that was drowned out by gunfire and explosions before long. 

Annie and Eugene knew they had lost a lot of men, but there was only so much they could do. With Buck shot in the rear end, Van Klinken hanging on for dear life, Brewer losing colour from blood loss, and the male medic barely able to walk, Easy Company high tailed it out of Nuenen with the somber knowledge that they had left men behind; Bull Randlemen being one of them. 

Annie didn't even have time to worry about her own injuries as they returned to the remaining American tanks waiting on the road outside of the town. Even Nixon got pegged in the helmet with a bullet at one point, and he never even stepped foot in Neunen. 

When all was said and done there were four dead, eleven injured, and one missing. Oh, how Annie wished she was curled up on a couch, safe and warm with her friends again.


	27. Search Party

"Margot, I'm fine, really," Annie grunted as she plopped down onto the grass and started pulling her boot off of her foot to check on the bullet graze. The injury on her arm had been minor enough that it had stopped bleeding by the time Easy Company had high tailed it out of Nuenen, but Margot kept insisting she check  _both_  wounds and get them cleaned up. 

If someone hadn't had known better, they might have thought Margot was the medic instead of Annie.  

"You're the one who's always telling people that while things can often feel worse then they look, they can also be worse than they feel." Margot threw the small medic's own words back at her. 

Annie tossed her boot to the side before looking up at her friend and chuckling. "It's cute how much you care about me."

"Oh, shut up!" Margot laughed as she gently shoved Annie's shoulder. "Just, y'know...make sure you're okay or I swear I will go get Eugene."

"Are you seriously threatening me with Doc Roe?" Annie cocked a brow, her tone almost challenging her friend to do it. 

Margot narrowed her eyes and tilted her head like a small dog. "Is it working?"

Annie took a minute to weigh the pros and cons, and since she knew Eugene would fuss over the bullet grazes more than she would like, she reluctantly pulled her medic bag off of her body and opened it. "Yes." Annie dug out a bandage and a pair of scissors. "Yes, it is working."

Working quick, but also a little haphazardly because she was tired and only dealing with herself, Annie cut the bandage in two and started wrapping the first half around her foot. "Do you mind?" she gestured to the second bandage, knowing she couldn't wrap it tight enough around her own arm.

Before Margot could pick up the second half of the bandage, a pair of boots stepped beside the two women. "How's it going?" Luz knelt down and inspected Annie's injuries. "You okay?"

" _I am fine_ ," Annie rolled her eyes, suddenly understanding what it must have been like for her patients when she hovered over them so much. "I'm not gonna die. Look, they've already stopped bleeding. Will everyone just stop asking me if I'm okay?"

Exhaling loudly to show how done she was with dealing with her stubborn friend, Margot stood up and motioned for Luz to take her place. "She's all yours."

As Margot headed off to have a smoke and hopefully find something to drink, Luz sat down where the machine-gunner had been and picked up the bandage. Without even asking, he just started tying it carefully, but firmly, around Annie's arm. 

"Hey, good technique." Annie was impressed with how well the bandage was applied.

Luz sat back and flashed a sly grin. "Guess I just had a good teacher."

"Mmm," Annie decided to play it dumb just to mess with the charming radioman. "Eugene is a  _very_ good teacher. Taught me everything I know, that guy."

"No, that's not what I-" Luz started before he picked up on the joke and stopped himself. "Look at you, you little class clown. Every day you venture further and further from that quiet, shy girl at Toccoa."

Annie shrugged as she packed the scissors away in her bag again. "That girl was boring." Annie talked about her past self as if she was someone completely different; which in a way, she was. "I think the new Annie is a lot more fun, don't you? Annie 2.0."

"I do..." Luz trailed off as the silence of the night washed over the pair like a dark, deep wave from the middle of the ocean. It was a nice evening, weather-wise. Wasn't too cold, wasn't too hot. 

In the absence of conversation, Annie couldn't help but wonder about Bull. Had he been killed? Had he made it out unscathed? Was he still lying in a ditch somewhere, slowly bleeding out from his wounds? Annie hoped it was the middle option, but she feared it was the first or the third. 

"You did everything you could," Luz spoke up, breaking the silence and subsequently making it seem like he could read the blonde's mind. " I saw you...I watched how you worked tirelessly to get Brewer and that medic out of there; and because of you, they're both going to make it."

Annie couldn't help the small smile that pulled at the corners of her mouth. "I think they were just lucky." she sighed. "Lady Luck was with them."

"Lady Luck?" Luz inquired.

Annie let out a small laugh when she thought back to the origin of the Lady of Luck. "I'm not sure it's really a thing...I think I can remember my mom saying something about a Greek goddess of luck, Fortuna, but I think she just used it more to help us get through rough times." she started to explain the story to Luz. "Mom was never super religious, so when we had something important, like a school presentation or a sports game, instead of praying, she would tell us that Lady Luck was with us as long as we worked hard and did our part. She just sort of said it to give us that extra little confidence boost...and then, of course, if something lucky happened, it was because Lady Luck was with us." 

"I think I get it." Luz nodded along with the tale. 

"Joe Toye gave me the same kind of look when I said it to him after we almost got blown up by two grenades in a row on D-day, so don't worry about it." Annie waved it off like it was nothing. "Just a Winslow family thing."

Lying back in the grass, Luz folded his arms under his head and smiled. "I like Winslow family things...like Lady Luck and having a big, happy family...and pretending to be George Luz, the greatest Paratrooper and radioman to ever live."

"That last one is just Timothy." Annie reminded her friend. "And don't go getting too big a head. Timothy has a big imagination and likes to play pretend a lot. One summer he thought the mailman was the coolest guy in the world."

"You telling me that the mailman  _isn't_  the coolest guy in the world?"

Turning to Luz, Annie took one look at that big, goofy smile on his face and felt all of her stress melt away. "The mailman is pretty cool," she admitted before lying down in the grass as well and staring up at the stars in the sky. "But not as cool as Luz the radioman."

While Annie and Luz stared up at the night sky in silence, Margot was across the field with a cigarette in her mouth and her eyes trained on Guarnere. The worried Sergeant was making rounds, asking if anybody had seen or heard from Bull yet, all the while repeating that if there wasn't a body, then no one was dead. 

When Hoobler and some of the replacements decided to go search for Bull, Margot decided to throw her hat in the ring and join them. She knew it would do her some good to keep herself busy, and it would also probably put Guarnere's mind at ease. 

"Hey, you be careful, you hear?" Guarnere told Margot as she put her half-smoked cigarette out and reached for her helmet. "We don't need two missing Sergeants."

"Why ain't you telling this to Hoobler? Or Garcia?" Margot teased her friend about his caring side. 

Guarnere gave Margot a playful slap on the top of the helmet. "Cuz those monkeys ain't one of my best friends. Besides, Joe would have my neck if I didn't at least warn you before you left."

Margot chuckled at the comment. "That Joe Toye is a character, but you can tell him that if he's really worried about me, then he can come warn me himself."

As the two friends parted ways, Margot met up with the volunteer search party and headed out. The woman wasn't too thrilled when she heard that Cobb was among the men going, but she had to give him kudos for at least getting off his ass and offering to help. 

Along with Hoobler, Garcia, Webster, and Cobb, Margot made her way along the ditches at the side of the roads back in the direction of Neunen. As a few Kraut tanks barreled down the foggy, night street, the five-person rescue team dropped low in the ditch and waited for the artillery to pass.

It was beginning to grow very clear to Margot that Neunen had been overrun by the Germans after Easy's departure, and that if Bull was still alive and in the town, it was going to be near impossible to get him out. 

It was also dawning on Margot that out of everyone in the small group, she was the ranking officer. That meant, that if anything went wrong, it would be her job on the line; and she had already been warned by Colonel Sink that another fuckup would find her back in North Carolina with her asshat of a Dad and depressing shooting range. 

Pushing the worrying thoughts from her head in order to make room for her complete focus on the mission, Margot lead the group through the ditches once again after the tanks were out of sight. 

In the distance, a series of explosions went off, lighting up the sky like a 4th of July fireworks show. But it wasn't a fireworks show; it was Eindhoven. The Germans were bombing Eindhoven and all Margot could think about was the lovely old couple that let her, Annie, Luz, and Liebgott stay with them. 

They didn't deserve to die. None of them deserved to die.

Margot and the men searched all night long for Bull, hoping he had made it out of the town and was slowly making his way back to camp, but no such luck. There was no sign of the large, cigar-smoking man from Arkansas.

When the sun rose the next morning, the search party was about ready to turn around and go home when Jeep came zooming around the bend in the road. At first, out of fear it was a German Jeep, the group threw themselves down in the ditch again. However, upon further inspection, it was an American jeep, and sitting in the passenger seat was Bull Randleman himself.

Holding her rifle above her head to signal that she wasn't the enemy, Margot flagged the jeep down and ran over as fast as her exhausted legs could take her. When the black-haired girl placed a hand on Bull's shoulder to confirm he was real, she flooded with relief. "Oh, thank God." she couldn't stop herself from hugging the man. "I thought you were dead."

"Missed you, too." Bull smiled and motioned for them all to pile onto the Jeep.

As soon as the vehicle pulled back into camp, people surrounded Bull, happy to see he was alive and okay. "Bull!" Martin rushed over and gave his friend a hardy handshake. "Get a little lost?"

"Something like that," Bull smirked.

Martin looked happier than he ever had, which was sort of an odd sight to see since the man was usually sporting a permanent scowl. "It's good to see you." he looked up at the larger man. 

"You, too." Bull returned the sentiment. 

"I don't know whether to slap you, kiss you, or salute you." Guarnere sauntered over. "I told these scallywags you was okay."

Bull scoffed. "And they didn't listen?"

"Nah, these salty bastards, they wanted to go on a suicide mission to drag your ass back."

Bull looked over at Margot and the rest of the 'suicide mission' team. "Is that right?"

Guarnere nodded. "Yeah, I told 'em don't bother."

"I only went 'cuz Gonorrhea was too chicken to go himself." Margot pulled her helmet off of her head and sighed. "Plus, these guys were in desperate need of some decent leadership."

Bull furrowed his brows at Margot and shook his head. "I never did like this company none."

And just like that, with Easy back together and as in one piece as they could be, Winters gave the order to move out again. Another day, another town, another dance with death.


	28. Crossroads

Walking through the threshold of the barn that Easy Company would be staying in for the night, Margot spotted Winters and Luz sitting quietly, doing their own thing, while Talbert and Dukeman were hashing out the plans for the upcoming mission across the river. 

A few others were milling about and some of the replacements were busy climbing up to the hayloft to catch some shut-eye, but all-in-all the barn was pretty low-energy. Just as Margot went to join Winters and Luz, a flash of fur darted in front of her legs. 

"What the heck?" Margot turned to see a dog jogging over to Talbert with a stick in its mouth. "Where'd you get the dog?" she inquired as she sat down beside Luz and Muck, careful not to get in the dog's way again as Talbert tossed the small branch.

"Found 'em." Talbert shrugged as a noise from the hayloft caught his attention. "New guys giving the replacements the what for, and why is," he commented. "I swear one of them's never shaved." 

Winters nodded absentmindedly as he fiddled with the radio parts in his hands. "Yeah, kids."

Just then, the dog ran back over and dropped the branch at Luz's feet. Luz, the child at heart that he was, immediately reached forward to scratch the dog behind the ear and fawn over it. "This is a hell of a dog, Tab." he complimented the friendly animal. 

"Thank you." Talbert reached down to grab the make-shift toy before throwing it across the barn once more.

"I always wanted a dog." Margot watched as the German Shepherd cross happily bounded around the legs of the other troopers. "Dad never let us. Too much work."

Winters scoffed slightly at that. He had heard the brief tales of Margot's father here and there and was quite sure the man didn't do enough work to even know what 'hard work' was. "What'd you call it, Tab?" he kept the conversation light.

"Trigger."

Luz popped a cracker into his mouth and nodded in approval. "That's good, I like that, Trigger."

Just then, the barn doors burst open, turning the heads of every trooper in the room. "We've got penetration!" a voice yelled as a group of men started carrying an injured Alley over to the nearest table. "Alley's hurt, we need the doc."

Annie, who had been sleeping in the corner with her back against the wall and her helmet over her eyes, jumped at the sound of commotion. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she took a moment to take in the situation before standing up and running over. "I'm here." she plopped her medic bag down on the table beside Alley and noticed the wounds on his lower abdomen. "I'm here, Alley. Don't you worry. Someone get Eugene just in case!"

Within seconds the table was surrounded by Easy Company men, all of whom were worried about their friend and wanted to show their support. "Where am I?" Alley's dark eyes peered up at Annie. "Something happened. What happened?"

"I don't know," Annie told him simply before looking up at the rest of the men, hoping one of them who had been there could tell her what had gone down. 

When no one spoke up, Winters posed the question. "Where was it?"

"Crossroads, where the road crosses the dike," Liebgott answered as he reached into Annie's bag to grab a bandage. He had been in that situation many times before and had watched Annie repeated the same steps over and over again. Morphine, sulfa, bandage, pressure. However, the bandage wasn't for Alley, it was for him. He had been grazed on the neck.

"If it wasn't for your loud mouth, they'd have never known we was there." Lesniewski blamed Liebgott for the condition Alley was in. 

Not appreciating the accusation of fault, Liebgott turned to the man beside him and rolled his eyes. "Hey, you know what, Joe, back off."

"Stop!" Annie held her hands up to cease the bickering. "There are too many men in my face and there are too many unhelpful conversations happening right now. Everyone needs to take a step back and stop taking."

"Lesniewski, send a runner for Lieutenant Welsh." Winters took control of the situation and started handing out jobs to keep the anxious men busy. "Lipton, assemble me a squad."

As Lipton's 1st squad started to scatter to collect their gear, giving Annie room to work, the blonde grabbed Liebgott by the sleeve as he tried to leave, her eyes not leaving Alley for a second. "Not you," she told him. "That neck wound doesn't look too good. Have a seat and I'll have a look later."

When Eugene arrived, the two medics got to work. Annie had already given the man morphine and poured sulfa into the bleeding chest wounds, so Eugene took control of the leg injuries. Sticking around because of Annie's request, Liebgott also lent a helping hand. 

With some quick thinking and fast hands, Annie and Eugene were thankfully able to get Alley stable enough for transport. The injured man was still confused and in shock, but he hadn't passed out at all, which was a good sign. As Eugene and a few of the stronger men carried Alley out to the vehicles, Annie wiped her hands the best she could and turned to Liebgott.

"Okay," she exhaled, allowing all the stress of dealing with Alley to leave her body. "Let's take a look at that neck wound."

With the bandage from earlier tied tightly around his neck, Liebgott watched out of the corner of his eye as Margot and the other men in Lipton's squad began to head out. He wanted to be a part of that squad. He needed to. For Alley. "I'm okay," he started to reach for his gear. "Really, it's nothing."

Annie let an airy laugh escape her lips. "You're funny." she gestured to a nearby hay bale. "Just have a seat. I won't be long."

Plopping his helmet onto his head and grabbing his rifle, Liebgott repeated his earlier statement about being fine. "It's not even that bad." he tried to assure the small, worried medic.

"Are you really gonna pull a Margot on me here?" Annie placed her hands on her hips as she stared down the skinny cab driver from Oakland. "You really wanna piss off a medic?"

As Margot paused at the door to witness the decision-making process between staying and going, Liebgott looked between the two women. He knew Annie was right, she always was, but he also knew he needed to be on that squad. 

"I'll come see you after. I promise." Liebgott hoped his word was enough to keep the small girl from being too mad before he grabbed the rest of his stuff and took off out the door with Margot. 

Annie watched as two Paratroopers' figures disappeared into the night, her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Sometimes, she just couldn't believe the stupidity of the men and woman of Easy Company. "I swear...I'm gonna let them all bleed out," she mumbled to herself as she turned to the table and started cleaning up. "See how tough they are when they've got a bullet in the back and I just tell them 'it's fine'."

Meanwhile, Margot was crouching along the dark ditch with the rest of the squad, slowly heading in the direction of the crossroads. When a series of gunshots rang out, everyone dropped to their stomachs. 

"MG-42?" Talbert asked, recognizing the sound of the weapon. Winters nodded. "What the hell are they shooting at? What's down that road?"

Winters kept his eyes peeled on the road ahead. "Regimental headquarters. But that's three miles away. Why are they giving away their position?"

"They ain't as smart as me and you?" Talbert suggested. Oh, how nice it would be if the Germans were a bunch of idiots. If that were true, the war would have been over before it ever really started.

"I think I'll go check it out anyway." Winters decided before turning to the rest of the squad. "Hold here, wait for my signal."

Waiting until the gunshots quieted down, Winters climbed the high, steep side of the ditch and disappeared from sight. While the Lieutenant went to scope out the enemy, Margot crawled up next to Liebgott and inspected the bloody bandage on his neck. "It's still bleeding." she pointed out. "You told her you were fine."

Liebgott sighed. "You would have done the same thing."

"That I would." Margot agreed. "Which is why I know it's a stupid idea. She likes you, Lieb. Don't blow it."

Liebgott's eyebrows shot up, his eyes wide as he looked to the woman beside him. "She likes me?"

"Whoa, calm down there, big boy." Margot chuckled. "She thinks you're nice. She considers you a friend. Anything more than that, I don't know. Just, take my word for it and go see her as soon as we get back."

"Was planning to."

"Good."

When Winters poked his head over the top of the ditch again, he used his hand signals to relay the plan to Talbert and the rest of the squad. Once everyone was on the same page, the group started the climb up and out of the ditch.

Keeping their movements as quiet as possible, the troopers touched down onto the gravel road before sprinting across and dropping down into the ditch on the other side. As more German gunfire echoed through the night, Winters checked on the two machine-gunners keeping look-out at the side of the road before turning to everyone else. "This is our fallback position, here. Mortars, deploy here. First squad, on me. Go."

While the mortar squad broke off from the main group to set up, Winters lead the rest of the men down the ditch and closer to the enemy. German shouting could be heard before long, and for a split second, Margot wished she had been one of the machine-gunners back on the side of the road.

Holding his hand up to signal everyone to stop, Winters sat back on his haunches and listened. After a while, he climbed up again to get a better view. Then he gave another set of instructions and the squad was back up the ditch, across the road once more, and hiding in a small foxhole. 

Once everyone was set up, Winters assigned each member a German to shoot, ensuring that once he made the call to fire, there would be no enemy left to shoot back. With the machine-gunners by their side now, the numbers were just big enough to take out the Krauts. 

Settling down, Winters peered down the barrel of his rifle, adjusted his sight, and took the first shot. As soon as the first gunshot rang in Margot's ears, she pulled the trigger. The Germans screamed and darted around like mice, but after a few more shots, most had fallen.

"Fall back!" Winters ordered as the first of the mortars hit. 

As the riflemen returned to the safety of the ditch, the machine-gunners laid down some cover fire to ensure every single Kraut in sight was dead. A few more mortars hit and another group of Germans had started shooting by the time Winters and his group made it back to the fallback position. 

"How many Krauts are left up there?" Cobb asked.

"I don't know." Liebgott reached into his pocket for some more ammo. "But we got seven in one blow."

Dropping down between the two men, Margot sighed as she lined up another shot. "Really wish I had my big gun right now." 

"Suppressing fire!" Winters instructed before grabbing the receiver from the radio on Luz's back. "Harry, tell Peacock to bring the balance of 1st Platoon on the double! And Babe Heffron too with the machine-gun. Sergeant Kessler is already here! Over!"

"My prayers have been answered." Margot relished in the fact that she was getting her big gun. As Dukeman stood up to move further down the ditch, a bullet hit him from the side and he collapsed. He was dead on impact. 

When Babe and the second machine-gun arrived, well ahead of 1st Platoon, Margot took her position on the left flank and fired until the Krauts down the road weren't even twitching anymore. The squad fought through the night and well into the next morning, maintaining their cover and strategically taking out as many Germans as possible. 

During a lull in the gunfire, the balance of 1st Platoon had finally arrived, and along with them, Smokey and More and their machine-gun. Winters, however, seemed too focused on the map in his hands to take much of the new information in. "They're behind a solid roadway embankment." Winters finally said, referring to the Germans. "We're in a ditch. They can outflank us along the dike, and catch us as soon as they figure that out."

"So, how many Krauts are we talking about?" Margot inquired as she wiped some of the dirt off of her face with her sleeve. 

"Well, there's a ferry crossing here, so, it could be a whole Battalion, as far as I know." Winters studied the map. "We got no choice. Here it is, Talbert, you'll take ten men along the dike. Peacock, you'll take ten men along the left flank. I'll take ten up the middle, so follow me. Questions?"

When no one had any questions, Winters gave the order to fix bayonets and go on the red smoke. Looking around at the rest of 1st Platoon, Margot was glad they had gotten some backup for the upcoming attack. Even Annie had come, but since arriving, she hadn't done much other than check on the group and glare at Liebgott. 

Looking down the ditch on either side of him, Winters made sure everyone was ready before he tossed the smoke grenade out into the field and started running. As soon as the red smoke started filling the green field, the men and women jumped out of the ditch and started across the grass after Winters.

As soon as Winters darted up and over the hill to where the Germans were, gunfire rang out. When Margot reached the top, she motioned for Babe to put down the tripod before she dropped the M1 Browning into place. As soon as Babe gave the signal, the raven-haired woman pulled the trigger and joined the firefight. 

The Germans were shocked at first after the sudden attack but after a few seconds of panic, they began shooting back. "Holy shit!" Margot heard someone exclaim as more Germans started appearing over the second hill. "It's a whole other company!"

Adjusting her aim, Margot started going for the new company men as they came over the hill to join the fight. 

"Easy Beaver to Easy Minor!" Winters' voice could be heard over all the gunfire. "Reinforce Easy at phase one yellow. Plus one, strike three. Fire concentration charlie. Drop two-hundred, left one-hundred."

"Keep that ammo coming!" Margot made sure Babe's hands could keep up as she blew through her bullets at an alarming rate. 

As Martin and Webster moved down to capture a few POWs, a series of loud and large explosions went off through the open German field. Boyle, who had run up to the road to spot the fallout of the rounds, was hit with shrapnel on the way and promptly fell to the ground. 

"Jesus Christ, they got me!" Annie heard Webster yell from the ditch below, but her focus was on getting Boyle out of the open. Running onto the road, Annie grabbed Boyle by his webbing before hauling him back down into the relative safety of the nearest ditch. 

Somehow, by the time everything was said and done, Easy Company had only lost one man; William Dukeman. The Germans, who had been SS, hadn't fared as well. Their bodies littered the field; more of them having died than escaped.

Annie and Eugene had managed to patch up the injured, including Boyle and Webster, and had them sent to the nearest hospital as soon as possible. Thankfully, most of the injuries were on the minor side of the battle-wound scale. 

Hearing a single gun going off, Margot turned around to see Liebgott still firing at the Kraut bodies. "Joe?" Winters knelt down beside the man as he fired another shot. "Joe, knock it off!"

"Damnit, what?" Liebgott snapped.

Reaching over, Winters touched the blood-soaked bandage on Liebgott's neck that, at that point, was serving no purpose at all. His neck was smeared with fresh, bright red blood and the bandage was hanging loose. "You're bleeding," Winters told him as if he didn't already know. "I want you to take these prisoners back to Battalion CP and get yourself cleaned up. Have Annie or Eugene take a look."

"Yes, sir," Liebgott stood up and reloaded his gun. "Come on, Kraut boys."

"Joe." Winters stopped him. "Drop your ammo."

Liebgott looked perplexed. "What?"

"Give me your weapon." Winters took the rifle from Liebgott's hands before emptying the majority of the bullets onto the dirt, leaving him with one. "You have one round. Johnny, how many prisoners do we have?"

"We got eleven right now, sir," Martin answered.

Winters nodded and looked back at Liebgott. "Okay. You drop a prisoner, the rest'll jump you. I want all prisoners back at Battalion CP alive."

As Liebgott reluctantly started leading the German prisoners back to camp, he locked eyes with Annie, who was riding back on a Jeep with some of the injured men. In total, there were twenty-two wounded, but the only one Annie wasn't concerned about was Liebgott. She knew he would be fine because eventually, he would come to see her. 

She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was sorry, but she wasn't done with him just yet. 


	29. Medic Knows Best

Digging through her medic bag, Annie started pulling out her supplies so she could count what she had left and write down what she needed to restock on. Going through the bandages, the medic was so in her own head that she didn't even notice the approaching footsteps. It wasn't until she felt a hand in her shoulder and nearly jumped out of her own skin that she was aware of the presence behind her.

"Holy-" Annie's hand moved to clutch her chest as she willed her racing heart to slow down. "You can't do that! Warn a girl first, why don't you?" she spun around and came face to face with Liebgott and his look of guilt. "Oh, it's you."

Liebgott nodded as he reached up to untie the blood-soaked bandage from his neck. "Winters said I should get it checked." he sat himself down on the table Annie had been using to do her inventory. 

Annie just crossed her arms over her chest and stared. For a few seconds, she was silent, allowing the tension to seep into Liebgott's bones. "So, now you want my help?" she grabbed his chin with her small hand and forcefully turned his head to the side. "Now, after the wound has opened up more and remained uncleaned for hours? Now, when it makes more work for me? Now, when I'm in the middle of doing my job?"

Liebgott swallowed hard, not saying a word but instead choosing to remember what Margot had told him. Annie had considered him a friend and by leaving when he did, he pretty much just told her that he didn't value her knowledge and skill over his own dumb ambition. 

"I'm sorry." he eventually spoke up as Annie ripped open a package of sulfa with her teeth. "I should have listened to you."

"Yes, you should have." Annie nodded, cleaning the wound with some water before sprinkling the sulfa into it. "I want to help you...I want to help everyone...but I can't help  _anyone_ if they don't let me."

As silence took over, Annie worked quickly and painlessly on Liebgott's injury. By the time she was done, his neck was cleaned of the dry blood and the wound was wrapped up tight in a fresh bandage. "You're gonna be fine," she told him as she stepped back to admire her work. "Just...I do know what I'm doing here, y'know? I'm not just running around like a chicken with its head cut off. There is a method to my madness."

Annie's words dug deep into Liebgott, hurting worse than the bullet graze on his neck ever had. He had never meant to make Annie feel like she was bad at her job. Hell, she was one of the finest medics he had ever seen. The way she kept calm and collected in the scariest of moments was a skill he could only dream of possessing. 

Jumping down from the table, Liebgott looked down at the blonde girl and smiled. "Hey, I know I'm an idiot sometimes, but I've never, not once, thought you weren't the perfect person for this job. This whole company is beyond lucky to have you."

"Okay, now you're just kissing ass." Annie didn't skip a beat with her retort; a sly smirk forming on her face. "Now shut up and help me with this inventory as a way to prove just how sorry you are."

"Yes, ma'am." Liebgott laughed as he moved to the other side of the table and started counting sulfa packets.

Annie scrunched her face up in a way that made it look like she had just eaten a whole lemon. "Oh, don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel old, and I'm way too young to feel old."

"Yes, Corporal."

"Better."

●●● 

On October 17th, Easy Company completed the extraction of trapped British Forces in Schoonderlogt, Holland; a consequence of the fall of Market Garden. This mission was known as Operation Pegasus and was the first operation in which Easy Company was under the command of Moose Heyliger.

Winters, after his outstanding work in Holland and in the wake of Major Horton's death, had been promoted to Captain and Executive Officer of the 2nd Battalion; and while everyone in Easy couldn't agree more that he deserved the position, it was hard to see their beloved leader go. 

However, with the help of Colonel Dobie, the leader of the British Red Devils, Moose Heyliger orchestrated Operation Pegasus to the T. With enough practice runs in the boats that the Canadian engineers had supplied, Easy was able to cross the water and retrieve the Brits without so much as a single hitch in the plan. 

To celebrate the successful mission, Easy Company and the Red Devils partied well into the night following their return. Operation Pegasus would mark the first of what many hoped to be numerous well-executed missions under the command of Moose Heyliger.

Sadly, Moose's command of Easy ended before it ever really began. Only thirteen days after the British rescue mission, in Driel, Holland, an accident occurred. 'Accident' was the only word Annie could use to describe the incident that wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings, but in reality, she thought of the series of events to be more of a colossal fuck-up that could have ended way worse than it had. 

Annie had been on the edge of sleep when her whole body was violently shaken. Fearing the worst, which was what she was trained to do, the blonde girl's eyes shot open and she jumped a little when Eugene's face was in hers.

"Heyliger." he breathed out, his eyes a little bleary, indicating that he might have been trying to get some sleep too. "Heyliger's been shot."

Without even a second to stretch and wake up fully, Annie jumped to her feet and followed her fellow medic out into the night. There was commotion over near one of the medical trucks, and as Annie and Eugene arrived, a Jeep pulled up. Inside the Jeep, Lieutenant Welsh was cradling Heyliger's slumped, bloodied body. 

Taking control, the two medics lifted Lieutenant Heyliger from the jeep and started to load him into the medical vehicle. "Did you give him morphine?" Annie asked as she reached into her bag, her hand tightening around a syrette just in case.

Welsh nodded as he moved to help move Moose. "Yeah."

"How many?" Eugene followed up as Annie released the syrette. 

Welsh shrugged, clearly overwhelmed by the situation. "Oh, I can't remember, two, three syrettes maybe."

The look on the medics' faces was one of shock and slight horror. "Three syrettes maybe?" Eugene glared at the two higher-ups. "Jesus Christ, were you trying to kill him?"

"I think it was two." Welsh changed his answer from a loose three to a solid two. 

"You don't think it might be important to let us know how much medication he's had?" Annie snapped, the words leaving her mouth in a fit of rage before her mind even had a chance to process them. "Because I don't see one syrette on the man's jacket."

Winters and Welsh apologized profusely for their lack of competency, but by then, Eugene had already lost his cool, much like Annie had. "Sure is a good thing he's a big man." Eugene huffed as he pushed the stretcher into the back of the truck. "Maybe he'll stand a chance."

"He was in a lot of pain, Doc." Welsh tried to justify their actions. "We didn't know what to do."

Those words drove Annie crazy. Didn't know what to do? Why did they think every man was forced to take at least the basics of first aid? It was so that everyone knew what to do! Annie, Eugene, and Spina had spent hours upon hours teaching Easy Company as much as they could about first aid, and now one of their Lieutenants was explaining away almost killing a man because he 'didn't know what to do?'

"Yeah, well, you outta!" Eugene hit his breaking point and turned to chew out the two men. "You are officers, you are grown-ups, you outta know!"

With that, the two medics jumped into the back of the truck and signaled for the driver to go. With wide eyes and a pale face, Winters slammed the back doors shut before giving the small window a few pats, leaving a bloodied handprint in the process.

Annie's eyes didn't leave that handprint for the entire drive. She couldn't believe she and Eugene had just spoken to superior officers like that, but then again, she also believed that they had had a valid point. What was the point in teaching first aid if no one could use the knowledge when the time came? 

While Moose Heyliger was severely injured in the shoulders and thigh, he did manage to survive his wounds. However, this meant that Easy would be getting yet another leader; all because of a nervous private's happy trigger finger and the empty-headed decisions of a Lieutenant and a Captain. 


	30. Got a Penny?

In December of 1944, Easy Company was stationed in Mourmelon-le-Grand, France. The new Company CO, Lieutenant Dike, was working the men and women hard, having them march up and down the tarmac over and over again as if there was a magic number that needed to be reached.

It hadn't taken Easy Company long to figure out that Dike was no Winters; he even had a nickname already: Foxhole Norman. The nickname came to be when the Paratroopers found that, on more than one occasion, Dike preferred to stay as far away from the action as possible; that being, away from the war and safe in a foxhole. 

By that point in time, the company was only at sixty percent strength, and most of that was from replacements and new guys. Margot and Annie, along with the remaining Toccoa men, were the only ones in Easy who had done the full two years of training and had served since the USA had joined the war. 

One victory of being in France, however, were the weekends off. Many men spent their weekend passes on trips to Paris, but since the main activities were heavy drinking and picking up women, Margot and Annie tended to take a hard pass. Margot did end up going once or twice just to appease the men who wouldn't leave her alone, and while she did end up enjoying herself a little for the pure fact that she wasn't on base, she felt bad for leaving Annie alone. 

So most weekends, the two women would spend time together doing a bunch of different things. Sometimes they sat quietly and played cards, other times they would read Annie's latest letter from home or compose the next one to send out, and if they simply just could not think of what to do, there was always a movie playing.

If there was one good thing to come out of Mourmelon-le-Grand, it was the strengthening of the relationship between the tall, raven-haired machine-gunner and small, blonde medic. 

Staring up at the black and white screen, Margot sat back in her chair and half paid attention to the film that was being shown. A lot of the men were on base for that weekend, with a few having returned from the hospital like Guarnere and Buck, so the movie being shown was one that Margot and Annie had already seen a few weeks prior.

And apparently, it was one that Luz had seen as well because he would not stop talking. "Look at me, I'm John Wayne," he spoke loudly from the second row, behind Margot, Toye, and Lipton and beside Annie. "The costume department set me up with these great Navy whites. What do you think?"

Annie rolled her eyes and folded her hands over her chest, trying her best not to slap her hand over his mouth. "Luz, shut up." Toye spun around in his seat, his arm snaking over the back of Margot's chair. 

"I'm trying to watch this," Lipton added.

"I've seen this movie thirteen times, okay?" Luz explained as if it made up for his blatant inconsideration for the people around him. Annie knew he was just trying to be funny, but it was also starting to get on her nerves as well.

Joe let out a small, barely audible groan, and Margot could tell he was getting annoyed. "Well, I haven't, so shut up."

"Watch the movie, it's fine." Luz gestured to the screen, indicating that he wouldn't talk anymore.

Margot let out a small chuckle as Joe turned back around and exhaled sharply. Leaning over, she kept her voice low as to not interrupt Lipton's viewing experience. "I've seen it before too," she told the frustrated man. "I'll fill in the blanks after."

Before Joe could respond, Malarkey came running in, calling Muck's name all the while. "Shut up!" Joe and Lipton snapped at the same time.

"You two are wound up so tight." Margot lifted her arms up and rested them over the shoulders of the men on either side of her. "I'm sure the talking will stop now."

Then, as if Luz was out to purposely prove Margot wrong, he leaned forward and tapped Lipton on the back. "Lip, favourite part," he stated before sitting back and smirking at Annie. "Got a penny?" he quoted the upcoming line.

Joe's eye filled with anger as he went to turn around again, but Margot just placed her hand on his head and made him face the screen. "Don't," she warned. "It's just gonna make him want to do it more. You have to remember, Luz had the mental capacity of a five-year-old on the best of days."

"Got a penny?" Luz repeated.

Annie's patience with her friend was beginning to run out. "Luz, for the love of all that is good in the world, will you stop talking?" she requested nicely, hoping he would listen to her.

Taking a long drag of his cigarette, Luz turned to the girl on his left, let the smoke leave his lungs, and smirked. "Got a penny?" he giggled like a child as the woman on screen finally said the much-anticipated line. 

That time it was Margot who turned around. "Luz, I swear to God I'm gonna kill you." she removed her arms from Joe's and Lipton's shoulders and reached back at him, her chair tipping in the process. "Annie, kill him for me."

Reaching over, Annie did what she had thought about earlier, and smacked her palm over Luz's lips. "In the words of Sobel, your speaking privileges have been revoked," she informed him. 

"Who's the one encouraging him now?" Joe cocked a brow at Margot.

Just then, the doors burst open and two men marched in, the lights turning back on and the movie shutting off as they did so. "Quiet!" the first man shouted as he moved to the front of the room. "I said, quiet! Elements of the 1st and the 6th SS Panzer division have broken through in the Ardennes forest. Now, they've overrun the 28th infantry and elements of the 4th. All officers report to respective HQs. All passes are cancelled. Enlisted men report to barracks and your platoon leaders!"

Groans of disappointment sounded as the men reluctantly stood up and headed out of the makeshift theatre. Removing her hand from Luz's face, Annie sighed and joined in the mass exodus. 

"So much for actually watching the movie," Margot commented as she pulled out a cigarette from her pocket and placed it between her lips. "Guess I will have to fill you in on the blanks after all, huh?"

"Don't worry about it." Joe fished out his lighter and lit the woman's smoke. "I'm sure we'll have a chance to watch it again."

Margot took a long inhale of her cigarette, letting the smoke work its magic on her general nerves and frustrations about being sent out again, before exhaling. "Yeah, I'm sure we will too."

●●● 

To say it was cold outside would be an understatement. The harsh North wind was bone-chilling and the snow falling from the sky left much to be desired in terms of ideal weather. The men and women of Easy Company were severely lacking in proper winter clothing, but that was just one of the many problems.

Everyone was short on ammo and the amount of K rations available were less than one would hope to have before heading out onto the front lines.

Annie, Eugene, and Spina had spent every minute since they heard the news gathering as many medical supplies as they could because they knew that the opportunity to restock once they got to wherever they were going would be a privilege rather than a promise. 

By the time Easy loaded into the back of the covered trucks, Annie's medic bag was about only about half full and Margot's machine-gun was severely lacking in sufficient ammo. 

As the truck rumbled down the frozen, dirt road, the members of Easy huddled as close to each other as they could for warmth, which wasn't hard due to the fact that there were people sitting on the benches and the floor. 

"I guess the blackout's not in effect," Buck noted as he stared back at the headlights of the truck behind them. "Luftwaffe must be asleep."

As a gust of wind blew in through the open back of the truck, Margot couldn't help but shiver. Her teeth were chattering and all she could do was picture how nice it would be to be in a warm bed or to even have an extra layer or two.

"Christ, I miss those C-47s." Guarnere wrapped his arms around himself. 

"I just wanna know where they're sending us, what the hell we're supposed to do with no ammo," Babe spoke up, his breath clouding up in front of his face. 

Annie, who was sitting on the floor with her back against Margot's legs, shared a look with Eugene. "I'd like to know what we're supposed to do with no medical supplies." she huffed as Liebgott wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to stay warm.

Looking up at one of the new guys who was lighting Popeye's cigarette, Guarnere nodded his head at him. "Hey, kid, what's your name again?"

"Suerth Junior," he answered.

"You got any ammo Junior?" Babe inquired, hoping he could snag some for his own personal weapon. 

Junior shook his head. "Just what I'm carrying."

"What about socks, Junior?" Toye asked. "You got extra socks?"

"A pair."

"You need four minimum." Muck scolded the guy like a disappointed mother. "Feet, hands, neck, balls.." he listed before everyone chimed in with, "Extra socks warms them all."

Muck smiled wide. "Yay, we all remembered that one. But did we remember the socks?"

Margot let out a laugh as she looked across the way to Junior. "You can have one of my pairs. Not sure if you've noticed, but I don't really have any balls to keep warm." 

"You don't?" Malarkey feigned being shocked. "Could've fooled me."

The men broke out into quiet fits of laughter. "Keep that up and neither will you." the machine-gunner threatened.

Moving on from Margot and her lack of balls, the men continued to pester Junior about the supplies and gear that he didn't have. The confused new guy shook his head at everything except the smokes, which made the men reach their hands out towards him, begging for a cigarette. 

Within seconds, everyone in the truck had a lit cigarette between their lips, the smoke being the only thing that was keeping their insides warm. 

"Here," Joe took a puff of his smoke before offering it to Margot, who was both out of her own and lacking one at the moment. "It'll help with the chattering teeth."

Grateful for the kind gesture, Margot took the cigarette from the man beside her before taking a drag. As the warm smoke entered her lungs, she felt her body relax slightly, both from the nicotine and momentary lack of shivering. "Thank you," she handed the smoke back. 

When the truck finally rolled to a stop, everyone jumped up and out, some eager to move around and get warm, others eager to take a leak after the long and bumpy journey. 

In an attempt to keep the unloading area as toasty as possible for the troops, a few men went around pouring gasoline into shallow holes in the ground and lighting them up with matches. As the flames danced in the night air, men gathered around like moths to a lamp. 

Upon arrival, the men and women of Easy Company were informed that they were in a place called Bastogne, which was located in Belgium. No one knew much about the area except that it was cold and that they didn't want to be there.

Standing beside Babe, who was shaking and desperately taking puffs of his smoke, Margot almost couldn't believe her eyes when she spotted hoards of men coming down the path in the opposite direction. Many of them were wounded, most of them were exhausted, and all of them were defeated. 

"What the hell is going on?" Malarkey's mouth fell agape as he watched man after man shuffle past.

"Hey, you're going the wrong way," Guarnere shouted as he grabbed one of the men from the retreating group. "Hey, pal, what happened?"

The man, who looked as if he had definitely seen better days, looked back at Guarnere, his eyes so void of emotion that he almost looked dead. "They came out of nowhere," he answered. "They slaughtered us. You gotta get out of here."

Thinking quick, Guarnere asked the man for his extra ammo, figuring he wasn't going to be needing it anymore. Within seconds, the entirety of Easy Company was collecting ammo, food, clothes, and pretty much anything else they could get for their turn on the line. Annie, Eugene, and Spina hunted for medkits and the like at the same time, but even after the scavenging, they still didn't have as much as they would have liked.

Thankfully, a Jeep pulled in not long after filled with ammo, so that boosted morale a little bit more. Rushing over, Margot helped unload the crates of ammo, making sure to grab some machine-gun bullets for herself and Babe. 

All the while, the Lieutenant who brought the ammo went on and on about what the Kraut artillery included. According to the Lieutenant, they had Tigers, Panthers, SPs, Stukers, and infantry that just kept coming. The news chilled Margot to the bone, and for once, she wasn't shaking because of the cold. 

Then just like that, with as much ammo as they could fit on their bodies and as much winter clothing that they could find, Easy Company began the trek into Bastogne. Margot and Annie looked to each other, a glimmer of uncertainty in their eyes and a flash of hope in their forced smiles. 

Neither one knew what Bastogne had in store for them, and neither one was excited to find out. 


	31. Bastogne

The snow crunched softly under Annie's footsteps, each one giving away her position just as much as the last, but she didn't care. Bastogne was taking everything Easy had, and then some. There was a shortage of food, water, ammo, warm clothing, and most of all, medical supplies. There was no aid station, there was nowhere to warm up, there was nowhere to get dry, and there was nowhere to escape from the harsh reality that was struggling to stay alive.

The fog was too thick for air cover to be deployed, and the men on the ground were spread too thin to actually hold the line should an attack take place. Every day they were hit with German firepower, mostly mortars, and every day they were losing men. 

Annie, Eugene, and Spina spent most of their time making the rounds to the foxholes, checking on the men, offering them words of encouragement, and asking if they had any medkits, even though they asked them the day before and the day before that.

Making her way back over to where Spina was digging a foxhole along the line, Annie greeted the shivering, red-nosed medic and started pulling out the supplies she had managed to find, which in total, wasn't a lot. Not long after, Eugene came along and did the same, and he had just about as much as her. 

"You know, 1st Battalion's pulled out of Foy," Eugene stated as the three medics plopped down into the half-dug foxhole to rest their legs for a bit. "Heavy casualties."

Spina scoffed as he adjusted the white band with the red cross on his arm. "So, if they're pulling back, then what the hell are we doing sitting here?"

"Freezing our asses off." Annie's teeth chattered in between her words. "Freezing and dying."

Pulling a small package out of his bag, Eugene huffed. "We need morphine, this is all I got. You got extra scissors?"

Both Annie and Spina shook their heads. "1st Sergeant Lipton!" Dike's voice echoed through the forest as he stumbled past the medics. "What's this? Three medics in one hole?"

"Yes, sir," Spina answered, not even caring that the company leader was very clearly not happy with what he was seeing.

Dike placed his free hand on his hip and glared down at the three, his eyes landing on Annie a little longer than the other two. "Well, what's gonna happen to us if you take a hit, huh?"

"Well, we'll all die, and then everyone else will all die, sir." Annie, like Spina, was in no mood for tiptoeing around the incompetent Lieutenant. 

Before Dike could speak again and address the female medic, Lipton came up behind him. "Sir?"

"1st Sergeant, where's my foxhole?" Dike turned to Lipton, his attention no longer on the three medics.

Annie had to stifle a laugh at the insanely stupid question, and even Lipton, who always treated Dike with the utmost respect, had a look of confusion on his face. "It's back here, sir." Lipton pointed in the opposite direction of which Dike had been walking in. "Maybe you missed it, huh? I'll walk you back, sir. You're a bit close to the line here."

"Goddamnit," Dike muttered as he and Lipton turned and disappeared into the fog. 

Once Annie was sure the twomen were out of earshot, she turned back to her fellow medics and let a soft, airy chuckle escape her frozen and cracked lips. "Where's my foxhole?" she repeated, the sound of the words coming out of her own mouth making her laugh even harder. 

Even Eugene and Spina, who were usually too stressed to have any fun, chortled. As a particularly cold gust of wind blew past, the laughter came to a halt in order to re-direct what little energy they had left into shivering and keeping warm. The three sat for a little while longer before standing up and getting back to work; Spina returning to digging and Eugene and Annie heading out to pester more men for medical supplies. 

Walking along the lines, Annie was met with quite a few grouchy men, most of whom complained that Eugene had asked them for supplies not five minutes earlier. The small blonde felt bad for bugging her friends, she did, but she was sure she would feel even worse if one of them got hit and she wasn't able to save them due to lack of morphine, or bandages, or plasma, or sulfa, or all of the above.

"Sergeant Guarnere." Annie approached the man as he wandered between his platoon's foxholes. "Have you got anything for me? Plasma? Morphine? Anything?"

Guarnere gave her a look that told her Eugene had already asked, but he didn't snap at the girl. "Listen here, little lady." he used his nickname for her. "You gotta help me. I'm pissin' needles."

"I'm sure Eugene already gave you the same answer, but there isn't much I can do Bill, I'm sorry," Annie informed the desperate Sergeant. "If it hurts to pee, you probably have an infection of some kind. To treat an infection I would need to give you antibiotics, and as you can tell by my constant making of rounds, we are severely low on supplies. I wish I could help you, I really do, but all I can tell you is to keep hydrated."

"Drink more water?" Guarnere looked down at the small girl as if she was off her rocker. "It hurts to pee and you want me to drink more water?"

Annie shrugged, knowing that the advice seemed counterproductive. "Remember what they said in basic? Dehydration is a soldier's worst enemy. If you stop drinking because it hurts to pee, you're going to get dehydrated, and that's just gonna make everything worse. So, as stupid as it sounds, yes, my advice to you is to drink more water."

Guarnere opened his mouth to protest yet again, but Margot spoke up before he got the chance. "Just listen to her," she instructed her friend, coming up behind him and giving him a pat on the shoulder. "She knows what she's doing. You're not gonna die because it hurts to pee."

Annie smiled up at her raven-haired friend but felt her heart sink a little in the process. Out of everyone, it wasn't hard to see that Bastogne was taking a significant tole on the tall, toned machine-gunner. Her hair was longer now, just past her shoulders, and she was almost as pale as the snow. There were large bags under her eyes and her green irises had somehow lost some of their colour. 

At first, Annie had thought the wound on Margot's side had opened back up again and gotten infected, but upon checking, she found that the wound was still closed up and healing as well as it could be. So, as simple as it sounded, it really was just the lack of food and sleep that was getting to her. 

Margot never let her physical appearance affect her mood in any way, however. She was still just as sharp-witted and snarky as ever, which pushed a little bit more hope into the worried Annie. Hopefully, they would be out of that frozen hell soon and Margot would get a chance to get back to normal.

"You, too." Annie included Margot in her advice. "Lots of water and-"

Just then, an explosion went off not too far away, sending one of the tall trees crashing to the ground. Margot and Guarnere threw themselves into the nearest foxhole as Annie began shouting for people to take cover. 

"MEDIC!" someone began screaming frantically from somewhere among the trees.

Quickly, but carefully, Annie made her way through the forest, ducking into foxholes along the way to avoid the mortar blasts and falling trees. "Doc!" Penkala screamed out as Annie knelt down beside him. "It's the goddamn artery! I can feel it!"

Looking down, Annie saw that Penkala had his hand wrapped tightly around his wrist, all the while screaming about how he was going to bleed out and die. Annie tried her hardest to get the scared man to let go so she could see, but eventually, she had to resort to the pure man-power of Eugene. 

After arriving, Eugene pried Penkala's hand away so Annie could take a look. "It's not the artery," she told him right off the bat. "It's not even that bad."

"I ain't going back, Doc." Penkala finally seemed to be calming down, as were the explosions.

Eugene furrowed his brows at the man as he helped Annie wrap the arm in a bandage. "What?"

"I ain't going nowhere, not in this shit!"

"You don't want to go out in this shit and you're yelling 'medic'?" Eugene hissed.

"I don't need to go back to no aid station."

Annie snorted as she tied off the bandage. "Well, you're in luck then. We don't have an aid station." she felt her body relax as the final mortar hit and the forest returned to its eerie quietness. Turning to Bull, who had been in the foxhole with Penkala, she gave him a look. "You okay?"

"Just peachy," he assured the small medic.

After reassuring Penkala that he would be alright and taking his medkit, Annie and Eugene returned to their foxhole. After unloading the things he had gathered, Eugene ordered Spina to take someone and work their way over to 3rd Battalion to scavenge for supplies. 

Once Spina was gone, Eugene ripped the helmet off of his head and began to breathe heavily. Annie knew that, just like Margot, he was trying his best to not let his inner exhaustion show on the outside. 

"Hey," she kicked his boot playfully with her own. "We're gonna be just fine."

Eugene's tired eyes looked up at her and he cracked a hint of a smile. "Yeah, how do you know that?"

"I don't," she shrugged matter-of-factly, "But I'd rather choose to believe that than sit around waiting to die all day."

As the two fell silent, the only sound coming from the surrounding men as they moved to check on one another after the attack, Annie felt her eyes begin to close slightly. She was pretty sure she never actually slept, but when she opened them again an hour or so had passed, Eugene was gone, and she could hear laughing.

Popping her head out of the foxhole, Annie spotted Eugene sitting on a nearby log watching as Babe, Malarkey, Muck, and a few others talked and joked about something. The sound of genuine laughter warmed her heart a little, and after asking Eugene, Annie found out that they were talking about how Spina and Babe fell right into an occupied German foxhole on the way to 3rd Battalion.

"Should have shot Hinkle in the ass, and he would have shot him in the ass." Muck's eyes were closed tight as he gasped for breath through his fits of laughter; Malarkey doing the same beside him.

Walking over to join them, Annie was handed a cup of food by Joe, the cook, and took it happily. "Yo, these smell like my armpit," Malarkey complained as Joe scooped another helping into his cup.

"At least your armpit's warm." Muck retorted, his words slightly mumbled as he spoke over his cigarette. 

Turning around, Joe Domingus eyed the men who were insulting his food. "Do you want syrup with that?"

"Hey, Joe, be honest, what's in these things anyway, huh?" Malarkey inquired as he stared quizzically down at the contents of his cup, desperately attempting to identify something. 

"Nothing you won't eat, Malarkey," Joe stated as Annie scooped a spoonful of the food into her mouth, trying her best to swallow without tasting too much.

Muck giggled. "I won't eat Malarkey."

"Hey, hey, maybe Hinkle would like your share, huh?" one of the new replacements, Julien, added.

Babe shook his head slightly and turned to Annie. "I should have shot him when I had the chance."

"What, running backwards, Babe?" Margot came up from behind her partner, having heard enough of the story from other men to tease him. When Babe looked up to see the tall woman standing over him, he scooted over to allow her room to sit between him and Annie.

"Anybody seen Lieutenant Dike?" Lieutenant Peacock approached the merry group.

Malarkey thought for a moment. "Try Battalion CP, sir."

"Try his foxhole," Annie muttered under her breath as Peacock marched off.

"Try Paris," Muck added.

Malarkey began to laugh at his joke before he even said it. "Try Hinkle,"

Standing up, Penkala held his arms out at Babe in a mocking fashion. "Hinkle, sweetie, I'm home." he put on a stereotypical German accent.

In the midst of the laughter, Babe informed Annie and Eugene that Dike probably had a full medkit that he wasn't using. "Maybe Hinkle's got a syrette for you," Julien smirked, causing Eugene to smile over the smoke between his lips.

"Eat your strudel," Malarkey jabbed his spoon towards Julien like a mother telling her son to eat his vegetables.

"Hey, Hinkle-Vinkle eat the armpit, huh?" Penkala used his horrible accent again, which only made the men laugh more and more. 

Margot's whole body shook as she chuckled, which made Annie happy. Looking down at the remaining food in her cup, Annie decided she was full and handed the rest over to her friend. With a grateful nod, Margot took the mystery concoction and shoveled it into her mouth. 

The group sat there for a while longer, tolerating their dinner and enjoying the conversation, before they had to head back to their posts and foxholes for the night. The days were short and cold, and the nights were long and colder, and no one wanted to be out in the open any longer than they had to after the sun had set. 

As Margot headed out to OP where she had the first shift with Toye, Annie went back to making rounds with Eugene. Somehow, the evening ended up being more productive than the day, and after only one trip around Annie and Eugene had gotten a full medkit from Dike, morphine from 3rd Battalion from Smokey, and news that Perconte was hoarding scissors. 

Out at OP — a small sheltered hole in the ground with a perfect view of the German treeline —Margot slid into place next to Toye, who had been waiting for her, and threw the thin blanket over herself for what little shelter from the cold she could get. 

"Where you been?" Joe's voice was low and rough like always, but for some reason, he sounded more on edge than normal. 

"Hinkle." was all Margot replied with, earning her a puzzled look from Joe, but she didn't elaborate any further. 

As darkness took over and the bone-chilling breeze picked up, there wasn't much conversation to be had between the two friends. They both looked like shit, they both felt like shit, and they were both slowly being tortured by the smell of hot food coming from the German lines. 

About an hour or so into their watch, a branch snapped from behind, causing both troopers to spin around. "It's just me." Eugene dropped to his stomach and crawled the rest of the way as Joe pointed his pistol at him. "You guys okay?"

"They got hot food." Margot's shaky finger pointed out across the field. "Can you smell it?"

"Toye, are you missing something?" Eugene asked, confusing Margot. 

Joe lowered his gun and exhaled. "Home."

"Toye, show me your feet," Eugene ordered. 

After telling Margot to watch the line as a few gunshots rang out, Joe lifted his left foot out from under the blanket to reveal that it was only covered by socks and what looked like a potato sack. "Where are your boots?" Margot asked before Eugene could. 

"In Washington, up General Taylor's ass," Joe grumbled as he tucked himself back under the blanket. "I can move better in bare feet, Doc."

"What happened?" Eugene asked, looking to Margot to see if she had any information, which she did not.

Joe drew in a breath, his eyes glued to the line. "I took 'em off to dry my goddamn socks. They got blown to hell, okay?"

Eugene, at that point, stopped being surprised and just moved on to dealing with the issue at hand. "Well, what's your size?"

"Nine, just like everybody else."

With that, Eugene hopped up and darted away back towards the rest of the foxholes. With the distant sound of singing from someone in Easy, Margot turned and looked at her idiotic friend. "Oh, don't you start with me." he knew she was staring without even having to turn his head. 

"What were you gonna do?" she started with him anyway. "Just walk around with no boots for the rest of the war? Annie was right when she said some of you men really were stupid."

When Joe didn't reply, Margot pulled the blanket off of herself and began to tuck her portion around his feet. "You're gonna get trench foot," she explained when she could feel his eyes on her. "And if you get trench foot you're gonna get sent off the lines and then what am I supposed to do, huh? Sit here at OP all alone every night?"

"What, don't want me to leave you?" he teased.

"Of course I don't want you to leave me." Margot was way past the point of playing along with the silly game she and Joe had had since Carentan. "I'm selfish. You're my friend and I don't want you to leave me. You are going to suffer through every bit of this war with me."

Joe was taken aback by his friend's outburst. Normally, the two of them would joke back and forth for ages, neither one of them getting bored and neither one of them wanting it to end. But ever since Bastogne, Margot was more on edge. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the lack of sleep, or maybe she really was just worried about everyone's safety. 

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere," Joe assured Margot. "You think some cold feet are gonna take me outta the war? I've still gotta slice Hitler's windpipe and have Joe Toye day enacted if you remember." 

"Oh, right," Margot rolled her eyes and dove back into her witty persona that the men of Easy Company had come to love. "And what exactly happens on Joe Toye day?"

"Well..." Joe scooted closer and wrapped his arm around the girl to keep her warm, his eyes never leaving the treeline in the distance. "I reckon it would just be a day off...no work, no school, just stay home all day and do absolutely nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing."

Margot sucked in a mouthful of the night air as she chuckled, the cold hurting her lungs. "That sounds nice," her green eyes surveyed the German lines as a few bursts of light from the gunshots popped up here and there. "I like doing nothing."

"Yeah, me too." Joe knew that if he were around the other guys he would never hold Margot the way he was, and she wouldn't let him, either. What the two of them had — a friendship, maybe more — wasn't fit for the likes of war. 

Joe, like the rest of the men, hadn't liked Margot or Annie when they had first arrived at Toccoa, and Margot, for the little she knew about the gruff, quiet man, felt the same. It was a mystery how the two became so close. Maybe it was because Margot started hanging out with Guarnere, who was friends with Joe, or maybe it was because they had been stuck in the same foxhole one too many times, but whatever the reason, the two cared for each other.

Margot had never had a lot of close friends growing up, and she had never really loved anyone besides her mother, so her feelings were as foreign to her as a bullet in the leg was. Joe was the same way; never had time for anything other than working. 

But during these rare, fleeting moments when it was just the two of them — seemingly against the world — suddenly, the war wasn't so terrifying. 

"Maybe sometime after all of this is over, when we're back home, we can do absolutely nothing together." 


	32. Red and White

Trees were falling, snow was flying, explosions were going off, and people were screaming. Annie could hear her heartbeat in her ears as she bolted through the forest, moving around trees and jumping over foxholes. 

"MEDIC!"

Every call for her pushed her more and more into overdrive. Someone, somewhere, could be dying, and it was up to her to make sure that didn't happen. 

Diving into the foxhole with Perconte and Skinny, Annie's eyes focused on Skinny's leg, which had been cut up with shrapnel from the explosions. As Perconte used the radio to call CP for a jeep, Annie pulled out her scissors and began to cut away the fabric of Skinny's pants. "It's okay, Skinny." the small medic assured him as she reached for the first wood splinter and quickly yanked it out of his skin. "I know it hurts, but we've gotta get these out."

Skinny let out whimpers of pain every time Annie extracted a piece of shrapnel, but once she was done and had poured sulfa into the bleeding wounds, he had managed to calm down a little bit. With another mortar flying overhead, Annie ducked instinctively while she bandaged the injured leg. "Even though it hurts a lot Skinny, it feels and looks much worse than it is." Annie gave her fellow trooper the good news. "Shrapnel wasn't even in that deep. You're gonna be just fine."

After Skinny refused any morphine, Annie and Perconte picked him up and started rushing him back towards where the jeep would meet them. With the sound of the jeep echoing through the forest, Perconte slipped in the fresh snow, taking Annie and Skinny down with him.

Skinny screamed out in pain as his injured leg smacked into the frozen ground. "Oh, Skinny, you got blood all over my trousers," Perconte complained.

"I'm real sorry, Frank." Skinny bit back, his voice laced with sarcasm. 

As the jeep drove up, Annie and Perconte lifted Skinny once more and loaded him onto the vehicle. Before the jeep could take off again, Eugene came running out of the fog. "Wait!" he called, his accent giving him away before Annie could see his face. "I've gotta go in for plasma! Annie, you come too, I might need some extra hands."

Annie shook her head as she hopped into the jeep with her fellow medic. "Bold of you to assume we'll get enough to require both of us."

"Optimism." Eugene shrugged as the jeep started driving down the snow-covered road. "Plus, you could use a trip into civilization."

 As soon as the jeep driver made the turn into the town of Bastogne, however, Annie could tell that wherever she was, it was not exactly civilization. By the looks of the buildings reduced to rubble and the flaming vehicles on the side of the road, the town had been hit just as hard and just as often as Easy Company. 

"All the tanks, artillery, are pulled back to here." the driver shouted over the loud engine. "We've got no backup beyond Bastogne, this is it. The Krauts captured the 326th medical and they took everybody. Doctors, medics, the whole shebang. We got nothin'. They're giving the boys hooch for the pain."

When the vehicle stopped just outside of a church with a large medic banner hanging above the entrance, two men rushed out with a stretcher and loaded Skinny onto it. While Eugene followed the men and Skinny inside, Annie stayed outside, her eyes glued to the piles of bodies littered throughout the streets. She had been right when she predicted they had gotten it just as bad there as in the forest; possibly even worse.

Walking over to the bodies, Annie felt pure guilt course through her as an idea popped into her head. The men needed coats, and she remembered Eugene saying something about Joe Toye needing new boots, but the act of looting a fallen soldier's body made her sick to her stomach. She battled with herself for a while before finally bucking up and putting the needs of the alive men over the needs of the dead. 

As Annie pulled a pair of size-nine boots off of a stiff body, she tried to remind herself that these men would have wanted their things to go to those in need. She tried to believe that they wanted the same for the men of Easy Company as she did. 

About ten minutes later, after Annie had piled the jeep high with extra coats and boots and anything else that would keep the men warm, Eugene came back outside with a box of supplies in his arms. "I guess it  _was_  a good thing we both came." Annie sighed.

"Eugene!" a beautiful woman with a blue cloth tied around her head ran out of the church. "Chocolat." she tossed the candy bar at him with a smile. "Pour Vous."

As the woman turned and headed back inside, Annie studied Eugene's face carefully. "Who is that?" she asked as they both climbed back into the jeep.

"Renée," he answered. "A nurse."

"Mmm," Annie hummed as the driver started taking them back to the forest. She wasn't sure why, mostly because she had only seen her for all of two seconds, but Annie liked Renée, and by the look on Eugene's face, he did too.

When the two medics arrived back to the middle of the cold forest, the chaplain was saying a prayer with the men of Easy knelt around him. "Amen." the company chorused as Annie and Eugene disembarked from the vehicle, their arms full of supplies. 

"Fight well for your God and your country." Maloney, the chaplain, told everyone. "God bless you all, and stay safe."

"That's it, guys, nothing more to worry about." Muck announced. "We're gonna die now, we're gonna die in a state of grace."

Walking over, Spina noticed the confused looks on the other two medics' faces. "Battalion wanted a reconnaissance patrol," he informed them. "Kraut hunting."

"Alright, I'll go." Eugene offered as he handed his box of supplies to Spina. 

As Eugene walked off to join the patrol and Spina went to put away the medical supplies, Annie started handing out coats to whoever needed one, making sure Toye got his boots in the process. Turned out, however, Martin didn't want a medic on the patrol, so Eugene stayed behind as well. 

Giving Annie a small wave, Margot turned and stalked toward the front line with the rest of the men. Luz was grumbling about Peacock being an idiot and Julian was going on about how he wanted to be lead scout, but Margot was much too cold and tired to really pay attention to any of it. 

Adjusting the M1 Browning on her shoulder, the black-haired woman joined up with Babe as the group headed off into the fog and away from camp. Thick snowflakes were falling slowly from the treetops and there was a light breeze, but the only real sound to be heard was the footsteps each trooper took in the fresh, squeaky snow.

With Martin taking young Julian under his wing, the two took the lead, scouting out the treeline before sending people out. As Julian popped out of cover trying to cross the pathway, German gunfire started up and a bullet hit Julian right in the neck.

Everything almost moved in slow motion as the young boy's head snapped back, the blood squirted from his neck, his knees buckled beneath him, and he hit the ground, his helmet bouncing off his head and into the snow. 

Laying down some cover fire, Martin called for the men to come up on the line. "We got a man down!"

"Keep still Julian!" Margot called as the boy just meters from her gasped for air, his bloodied hand reaching out for her. 

Babe's eyes were locked on the replacement that he had been sharing his foxhole with for the past week or so. "I can get him, Sarge!" Babe looked to Bull and Martin. 

"Suppressing fire!" Martin ordered.

 As Margot helped the men attempt to lay down enough fire for Babe to get to Julian, her eyes kept flickering back to the boy as the life slowly drained from his eyes. Babe reached out once, twice, three times, but every time he tried to get to Julian, the Germans would concentrate all of their fire on his arm. They were determined to let the young trooper bleed out right there in the snow.

Bright red blood poured from Julian's neck and lips like a waterfall, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. As he flopped around, screaming for help with no words, the snow around him became a dark pink colour. It was a surreal sight. Margot had never seen someone so terrified before.

Luz's voice was muted in the background as he called CP for a jeep, but for some reason, Margot knew it wouldn't matter either way. Throwing herself onto the ground next to Babe, the machine-gunner tried to help her partner reach Julian. She outstretched her hand, slowly inched her body out, her fingers just inches away, and then bullets peppered the ground. 

Margot was angry at herself for pulling back. Julian was bleeding out and she was worried about getting shot in the arm? Julian's dark brown eyes locked with her green ones and she could physically feel him slipping away.

Babe kept shouting at the boy to stay still and stop moving, but Margot was frozen. She didn't move. She didn't speak. A part of her wished Annie were there, but another part was sure there was nothing she could do even if she were. 

"He's dying..." she finally whispered out, just loud enough for her and Babe to hear.

Babe was hysterical, yelling at Julian to stop moving while he threw himself out into the open again and again, each time having to retreat just like the last. By then, Julian wasn't struggling anymore, he wasn't reaching out to them, he wasn't moving. He blinked back at Margot and Babe, pleading for them to help him, but knowing they couldn't. 

When Martin gave the order to pull back, Babe stayed where he was, shouting at Julian to stay still and hold on until they came back. Eventually, Margot had to physically pull her partner up onto his feet and drag him away. Slowly, she struggled back with both her M1 Browning and Babe in her arms. 

As the group retreated, getting far enough to where Eugene and Annie had been listening to the gunshots, one of the other men was hit. The two medics rushed to the wounded man, working quickly to stop the bleeding and keep him calm. Luz kept calling for a jeep and Martin kept ordering everyone to stay sharp.

"Martin!" Nixon ran out of the fog, his eyes darting toward the injured trooper. "Martin! What's going on?"

"They got Julian," Martin answered.

Babe pushed his way out of Margot's arms. "He's still alive!" he panted. "We got to go get him, sir."

"Did you hit an OP or their line?" Nixon followed up with the important questions.

"Their line, sir."

Babe pleaded to go back and get Julian, but when Nixon gave the order to fall back, the decision had been set in stone. As Luz, Annie, and Eugene carried the wounded man back to camp, German gunfire got closer and closer, the Krauts slowly but surely closing in on them. 

"Julian!" Babe croaked, his vocal cords fried from yelling.

"He's gone." Margot tried her best to convince him that Julian was indeed, dead. The image of Julian's throat torn open, blood spilling out around the ripped muscles, flashed through her head. There was no way he could have survived something like that even if all three medics had been there. "We have to go."

Finally, after enough encouragement, Babe stood up once more and followed Margot and the rest of the patrol group back to camp. 

Once Babe felt he had gone far enough, he let his legs give out and he dropped to the ground, Margot following suit. Before long, the whole patrol was sat around in a big circle, Winters even joining them for a little while. 

Wrapping her arms around Babe, Margot let him hide his face in her jacket so the others wouldn't see him cry. Margot and Babe had become close ever since Winters had partnered them up together, and every day Margot was thankful she had such a great partner. Babe reminded her a lot of herself. 

After a few minutes, Margot could tell Babe was losing his composure. His head was still buried in her jacket and her arms were still wrapped him, her hands slowly patting down his red hair. He didn't make a noise, not even a sniffle, but he began to shake ever so slightly, and it wasn't from the cold. 

Margot didn't say anything in order to avoid drawing attention to him, but she continued to hold him, her presence enough to show him she was there. Eventually, one by one, the men stood up and walked off to get some food and head back to their foxholes for the night. 

Margot sat there with Babe for maybe an hour, maybe two, before he finally sat up and dried his eyes. "You know, when Guarnere said you were a rose bush, I think he was right." Babe finally spoke.

Margot couldn't help but laugh, her eyebrows furrowing in slight offense. "Oh, thank you, Babe."

"You didn't let me finish." he continued. "Sure, you maybe be a little prickly at first, but you're also really good for a garden. Plant a rose bush and the whole garden is beautiful. You make Easy Company beautiful."

Margot blinked back at babe for a moment; never in her life had anyone ever said something so kind and thoughtful to her. "Doris sure missed out with you, didn't she?" Margot finally teased. 

"And there are the thorns," Babe shook his head as he stood up, the smile only present on his face for a few fleeting moments before the memory of Julian flooded back. Then, without another word, he turned and walked off. 

All Margot could think about as she watched Babe's figure disappear into the distance was how mesmerizing the sight of fresh blood on fresh snow was; how the colours vastly contrasted each other, almost as if they were never meant to be seen together naturally. 

Margot was sure there was some deeper meaning she could pull out of the experience, like how the snow represented innocence and the blood represented war, and how the blood mixed so easily into the snow, corrupting its purity and tainting it into a pink colour; how war seeped so easily into the bones of the men fighting in it, corrupting their morals and tainting their livelihoods. 

There was always a deeper meaning, always a lesson to be learned, but Margot was too tired and too cold to care. So, for her, for the time being, the blood was blood and the snow was snow. 

Red and white, dark and light, alive and dead. 


	33. Lean On Me

Wrapping her arms tight around her body, Margot kept her eyes peeled on the ground in front of her, making sure to be extra careful she didn't take a wrong step and fall into someone's foxhole. It was late; how late, she wasn't sure, but the sun had set hours ago and the moon was high in the night sky. 

Ever since Margot and Babe had parted ways, she couldn't keep still. She tried to eat, but her appetite had gone, she tried to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes she saw Julian staring back at her, his brown eyes begging her to save him, begging her to make all the pain go away.

Hearing a noise, Margot's head snapped up and she froze in place. Her hand instinctively reached for her knife, but when she saw it was just an Easy Company man sitting on a fallen tree, she relaxed again and walked over.

As she got closer and her footsteps got louder, the man looked up at her; it was Joe Toye. 

"Hello," she greeted as she sat down next to him. "What are you doing out here so late?"

"I could ask you the same thing." 

Margot's eyes drifted down to where Joe's hands were massaging his bare feet. The minimal light from the moon didn't help with much visibility, but she could tell his feet didn't look too good. "I couldn't sleep." she shivered as a cold gust of wind blew right through her. 

Joe paused for a moment and looked up at her, finally taking the time to make eye contact. "How come?"

Margot swallowed hard before answering, almost unsure if the words would even leave her lips. "Julian...when he...when he got shot I was right there. Babe and I, we tried to save him, but...there was nothing we could do. I watched him bleed out."

Joe stared back at Margot as she kept her gaze focused on her hands; her thin fingers pulling at one another as a way to release her nervous energy. "My feet hurt," he explained his own reason for being out, hoping it would take Margot's mind off of her own troubles.

A small smile crept onto Margot's pale face. "Yeah, probably because you walked around without any boots on for God knows how long."

"Yeah, probably..." Joe didn't even argue; she was right. "Doc was just here. Said it was trench foot. Said I could lose it if it goes gangrene."

"You probably shouldn't let it go gangrene."

"Really?" Joe rolled his eyes at the woman's remark, but he smiled anyway. He always smiled when Margot was around; she just had a way of making the bad things seem not so bad.

Scooting closer, Margot rubbed her hands together to warm them up slightly before holding them out toward him. "Lemme see it," she repeated the words he had said to her in that foxhole all those many months ago. 

Joe didn't even question the request. Instead, he swung both feet up onto the log and pulled his pant legs up. Margot reached out and gently placed her hands onto his feet, inspecting how the skin had wrinkled due to being so wet and cold for so long, like how fingers pruned after being in the bath for a while.

"Yup, looks like trench foot." she couldn't help herself from throwing in the useless comment. "But, lucky for you, I think I might know something that can help."

"You know something the medics don't?" Joe cocked a brow at the woman as she stood up, a knowing smirk on her face. 

With a quick nod, Margot took off jogging back towards the foxholes. Joe was utterly confused, and just when he thought she was never going to come back, the tall machine-gunner returned to view, her arms full of various things; all seemingly random and unrelated. 

"What are you-" he started, but Margot just shushed him and she started setting some of the stuff up. 

First, she set down one of the small burners that was used for heating food or making coffee and turned it on, careful to keep the light low as to not attract any Germans. Next, she set one of the helmets used for making coffee on top and poured some water from her canteen inside. 

Twisting the cap back onto her canteen, Margot sat up straight again and sighed. "Now, we wait," she instructed. 

"Wait for what?" Joe started massaging his feet again in hopes to get the blood flowing. 

"For pigs to fly." Margot narrowed her eyes at him and his foolish question. "For the water to heat up, what do you think? Now stop asking questions and just let me help you. I'm  _trying_ to returning the favour for how you helped me."

Joe scoffed and shook his head slightly. "All I did was pour water on you and tell you your wound didn't look too bad."

"Trust me, I'm not doing much more than that, either." Margot's eyes darted down to the flame under the helmet to make sure it was still lit. "I don't care about you  _that_  much."

Joe watched the flame as well, his eyes catching the corners of Margot's mouth curl up as she relished in her little dig at him. He knew she was joking; she was always joking. The only time he had ever heard a completely serious thing come out of her mouth was when she told him she didn't want him to leave her alone. 

He had sensed the fear in her tone when she had said that. The fear of losing her friend. The fear of facing war alone. Of course, she wouldn't be alone, because she would still have Annie, and Babe, and Luz, and everyone else in the company. But Joe liked to think there was something special about him; something that made him different compared to everyone else. 

In the end, though, it didn't matter, because he wasn't planning on going anywhere. 

In a change of thought, Joe's mind wandered back to the foxhole outside of Carentan when he had offered to help Margot. He had been so worried she would refuse his help; worried she wouldn't trust him enough, but she did. 

"How  _did_  you get that wound on your ribcage?" Joe found the words slipping from his mouth before he could stop himself. He immediately regretted it. He knew she didn't like to talk about it.

"D-day." she gave him the same answer she gave everyone else, but then, much to his surprise, she continued. "The light turned green, Winters told me to jump, and I jumped. I knew I was going to miss the drop zone...even from the air nothing looked familiar. I tried to steer myself away from the gunfire, but I couldn't. The wind was too strong."

Margot paused, her head lifting up as if she was checking to make sure Joe was still listening. He was. His eyes were glued to her, hanging on every single word she said. For the first time ever, she was telling the story, and she was telling it to him. 

"I landed right in the middle of them." she finally continued when she realized that her heart wasn't racing like it had all the other times she had thought about recalling the incident. "Right in the middle of the German gunners, and I froze. I froze like an idiot, just lying there, staring up at the sky and all the parachutes that were falling. I finally snapped out of my trance when they ran over, yelling and grabbing at me. I ditched my parachute and tried to remember my training, tried to remember when you and I had practiced hand-to-hand combat for hours, but I was a mess. I was terrified."

"I don't really remember how it happened because it was all sort of a blur, but eventually, I grabbed my rifle and just started firing. I pulled the trigger over and over again, screaming bloody murder the whole time. Then there was a sharp pain in my side, and then the sharp pain turned into agony. A Kraut had snuck up and bayoneted me right in the ribcage, his knife entering up high before he pulled down, slicing open my skin. I lost it on him. I grabbed his rifle by the barrel and kicked him backward. As he fell, I pulled the bayonet out of my side, grabbed hold of the gun and used it like a baseball bat. I beat that poor man until his face was nothing more than a pile of mush. All he had been trying to do was fight for his country, same as you, same as me, and I made it so that his family wouldn't even be able to recognize him."

Margot wasn't sure when it had happened, but as some point tears had started falling from her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. Drawing in a shaky breath, she felt Joe wrap an arm around her and pull her close, giving her the strength she needed to finish the story.

"Then I spent a day or so wandering around Normandy, looking for landmarks, looking for anyone else, Easy Company or not. I didn't find another American until I got about a mile or so away from the assembly location, then I just followed the groups of men flooding in. That's when I found all of you guys, but I...I couldn't tell everyone what happened. I was —  _I still am_  — deeply ashamed of what I did. Ashamed of freezing, ashamed of forgetting my training, and ashamed of what I did to that man...that boy...he was so young."

When Margot finally finished, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders, and for the first time since Normandy, she felt like she could breathe again. 

Joe couldn't do anything but look back at the woman beside him and hold her tight. For a while, neither one of them said anything, but eventually, the water began to steam ever so slightly, pulling Margot from her thoughts.

"Shit." she cursed as she reached down and picked the helmet up off of the flame by the sides where it wasn't too hot. Sitting the helmet down in the snow, careful not to let it tip, she turned the burner off and set it to the side. Dipping her own hand in the water first, she tested the temperature before setting it in front of Joe. "Soak your feet in the warm water," she instructed. 

Joe eyed the water and then Margot. "Doc said to keep my feet dry."

"And Doc is right, but first we want to get your feet warm." she pointed to the helmet of warm water. "Warm first, then dry."

Doing as his friend instructed, Joe dipped his feet one by one into the hot water, relishing in the warmth and letting each soak for about five or so minutes before the water started to cool down again. Once he was done, Margot kicked the helmet over and let the water dissolve the snow around it. 

"Now dry." Margot pulled out a ratty old scarf that Annie had brought back from Bastogne that was too tattered to keep anyone's neck warm. As Joe dried his feet off, Margot pulled out one of her extra pairs of socks and handed it over to him. "Now, here's the kicker." Margot fished out two plastic bags from her pockets. "One of the only useful things my dad ever taught me. Put your feet in the bags and then inside your boots, so that even if your boots get wet, your feet and socks will stay dry."

Joe looked at the bags in amazement and Margot beamed, thoroughly proud of herself for remembering the bag trick. "You're a goddamn saint." Joe praised as he put on the fresh socks, the bags, and then his boots again. 

"Might feel a little weird but at least you'll be dry." Margot was happy that she had been able to find all the things she had needed; the bags coming from a small supply bin that had been sent from Bastogne with food and water. 

Joe stood up and took a few steps, a happy sigh escaping him when his feet didn't immediately soak through again from the moisture in his boots. "I could kiss you." he pulled Margot up with him and cupped her face in his large hands. 

Margot felt her breathing hitch as her face rested inches away from Joe's. She could feel his warm breath on her skin and her cheeks, where his hands rested, were on fire from his touch. War wasn't supposed to be the place for this. What happened to feeling nothing? What happened to her indifference toward this man?

As much as Joe may have wanted to kiss Margot right there and then, he knew it was wrong as well. So, instead, he settled on a few choice words. "We've all done things we're ashamed of, but it doesn't make us bad people. We've all struggled to survive...killed to survive. You're a good person, Sergeant Kessler. You're a good person, Margot."

"So are you, Joe." Margot placed her hand over his. "So are you."

"Margot!" Eugene's voice called through the night, pulling the two apart in a split second. 

Margot kept her eyes focused on Joe, as he did her, wishing that the moment between them hadn't had to end. "Yeah?" she called back, drawing Eugene over to where she and Joe were standing. 

"It's Heffron." Eugene ran over. "He's really not doing well. Do you think you could, y'know? He's your partner. He's comfortable with you." 

"Yeah, I'll be right there." Margot broke eye contact and started to back away. "Let me know if it works, yeah?" she gestured to Joe's feet. "Hopefully it does."

Joe nodded as he started to pick up the burner and other supplies that Margot had gathered. "I will. See you later."

"Yeah." 

Following Eugene's footsteps away, Margot didn't dare look back. She wasn't too sure what had just happened, and she wasn't too sure how she felt about it either, but she could feel Joe's eyes on her as she disappeared into the fog and did know that she felt safe when she knew he was watching her back. 

Lifting the blanket of the foxhole that Eugene was standing beside up ever so slightly, Margot peeked in and saw Babe huddled under a blanket with Annie and Spina on either side of him. His usually bright eyes were emotionless, staring off into a place far, far away. 

"He hasn't said much of anything besides that he wants to collect Julian's stuff and send it home to his mom," Annie informed her friend on the state of the distraught redhead. "We didn't know what else to do. We thought maybe you could help."

As Annie and Spina moved away from Babe's sides and crawled out of the foxhole, leaving him alone for the first time in hours, Margot slid in and threw her arms around her partner like she had done earlier. "We're gonna make the rounds again, but one of us will come by to check up on him in a little bit." Annie tightened the scarf around her neck. 

"Okay." Margot nodded. 

When the tarp covering the foxhole fell back down again, leaving the two in darkness, Margot shifted slightly as Babe rested his head on her shoulder. "How are you handling this so well?" he asked, his voice barely audible. "You were there too. You saw him."

"I didn't share a foxhole with him." Margot reminded him. "But that doesn't mean I don't feel anything. Every time I close my eyes I see him."

"Yeah...me too,"

Babe shuddered slightly, letting his eyelids fall as he pressed his entire body into Margot for warmth and comfort. "Maybe in the morning, we can go get his stuff," Margot suggested, hoping it would make him feel a little bit better. "Then, as soon as we get out of here, we can send it home to his mom. He deserves that much."

Babe nodded ever so slightly before falling still, his breathing slowing into a soft, natural rhythm. When Margot was sure he was finally asleep, she allowed herself to relax as well, slumping against the dirt wall of the foxhole and exhaling. 

Margot couldn't help but feel protective over Babe, almost like a big sister. She had been by his side from pretty much day one when he joined the war with the rest of the replacements, and even though she hadn't been thrilled about getting a new partner at first, the happy-go-lucky redhead really grew on her fast.

Margot knew she would always be there for Babe to lean on, and she was sure that by the end of the war, she would need him to lean on as well. 


	34. Merry Christmas

Annie felt the rumbling in her bones as the large aircraft flew overhead. It was pretty low to the ground, but it seemed to be moving in a deliberate pattern over the trees. In a matter of seconds, men were jumping out of their foxholes, cheering and chanting as they ran in the direction the plane had gone in. 

Shrugging, Annie joined the group as they bolted for the treeline before jumping out into the open, waving their hands wildly up at the planes in the sky. Red smoke bombs were dropped from above, landing just meters away from the trees and dousing the field in crimson smoke. 

Lipton, who was standing beside Eugene and Annie, had a smile wider than anyone had seen in a long while. Everyone watched as the planes turned back around and headed towards them again. As they got closer though, they tipped their noses down and started shooting.

Bullets peppered the ground around the troopers' feet and one by one they darted back into the forest for cover. A few of the men started shooting at the planes, pissed off that their own aircrafts had just shot at them, but Lipton put a stop to that real quick.

"Sergeant, I don't understand, it was our own planes!" Eugene was beyond shocked.

Lipton shushed Eugene as a whole new fleet of planes flew over. "C-47s." he recognized the sound. "They're bringing supplies. It's a drop. It's a drop, come on!"

Parachutes with duffle bags full of supplies dropped from the planes over Bastogne and hope was filling the men and women of Easy. Along with Eugene, Lipton, and a few others, Annie rode into town to pick up some supplies for the men on the front. 

Heading into the church turned aid station with Eugene, Annie was quick to pick up as many boxes of bandages, morphine, plasma, and anything else that she could. As the small medic turned to carry the boxes back out to the jeep, she spotted Renée in the corner of the room, holding the hand of a severely injured man, whispering to him about how he would get to go home soon. 

Annie had whispered those same words to many men before, so she was able to tell when they were a promise or a just white lie. 

By the time Annie made it back outside the jeep was half full and wouldn't be able to take all the men back in one trip, so while Eugene stayed behind to scrounge up as much stuff as he could, Annie rode back with the first load of crates and two other men. 

Easy Company was thrilled to have a restock on the things they were desperately in need of, and as Annie handed out food packages, smokes, and various other items, she finally, for once in weeks, felt like she was actually helping. 

It was a small gesture, but seeing the smile on Malarkey's face as she passed him a box of smokes was enough to make her whole day better.

●●● 

Staring out at the German line where the approaching tanks were throwing snow up into the air in large white clouds, Annie swallowed hard as Lipton ran by, warning the medics that it was about to get really busy for them. 

Two or three foxholes up, much closer to the front of the pack, Margot was sat beside Babe, her hand resting on her M1 Browning and her finger ghosting over the trigger. 

The Germans were coming in for an attack, and just like that Lieutenant had said before Easy marched into the front lines, they had artillery coming out of their asses. Tanks, guns, mortars, you name it, they had it. 

All Easy had were guns and a determined 1st Sergeant, Carwood Lipton. 

Turning to the foxhole next to her, Margot locked eyes with Smokey and gave him a nod, wishing him luck. Smokey smiled, nodded back, and then collapsed into his foxhole, his hot coffee spilling all over him as the Kraut bullet went in one shoulder and out the other.

Margot immediately turned her head away as Smokey gasped out. She couldn't watch another person die right in front of her. She just couldn't.

Jumping up, Annie grabbed Eugene by the collar of his jacket and dragged him along with her. For some reason, he seemed to be in a trance, but the blonde girl wasn't going to let it get in the way of saving Smokey's life. The two medics hauled the injured man out of the hole and dragged him back further into the cover of the trees.

"I can't feel my legs!" Smokey cried out loud enough for everyone to hear; loud enough for Margot to hear.

Before anyone could worry about the wounded man, the German tanks emerged from the treeline. "Here they come!" someone announced. "Machine guns open fire!"

Margot's finger pulled back hard on the trigger as she sprayed the tanks and main-gunners. Some of her bullets hit their targets but most ricocheted off of the tank armour. Then the troops came out and it was terrifyingly obvious that Easy was outnumbered.

Running over to the chaos, Lipton looked down at Smokey as he sat in Annie and Eugene's arms. He was weeping and hyperventilating, and Margot could hear his laboured breathing in between the bullets she was firing. 

Half of Margot's brain was focused on the approaching Germans, the other half was worried about Smokey. Turning her head, the machine-gunner watched as Annie and Eugene dragged Smokey further into the forest and back towards where a jeep would be able to take him into town. The woman locked eyes with her former partner for a split second before an explosion pulled her back to what was more important. 

Margot wasn't sure how many times she fired at the enemy that day, maybe one-hundred, maybe one-thousand, but she was sure that no matter how many Krauts she killed, it didn't make up for the one bullet that pierced Smokey.

Margot only came back to her senses fully when she was back at camp again, hours after the gunfire had stopped. Annie had approached her and pulled her aside, so immediately Margot knew it wasn't good news. "Smokey...he's alive." Annie got that part out first. "But, he's paralyzed. Waist down. Nothing."

Margot knew that she should have been relieved that he was alive, but she couldn't stop herself from focusing on the anger that coursed through her. Paralyzed wasn't dead, but then again, it wasn't fully alive either. Smokey and she had had endless conversations about their lives back home and what they liked to do, and it upset Margot to no end that he would never be able to do a lot of those things again. 

"Thank you." she nodded at Annie.

With a small smile, Annie moved to join the food line-up. What was for dinner was questionable like always, but it was food, and the female medic was starving. Margot, on the other hand, had no desire to eat at all, so she moved over to a tree and sat down at the base of it, her knees tucked up to her chest.

Before long she was lost in thought, her mind racing about this and that, her internal thoughts simultaneously reminding her of the horrible things she had witnessed while also chastising her for being upset about them. She was supposed to be stronger than this. 

As a silver cup dangled in front of Margot's face, she snapped out of her daze and looked up to see Toye offering her some food. Although she had no intentions of eating it, she took the cup out of politeness. "Thanks."

Before Joe could sit down beside her, the rumble of an engine caught everyone's attention and seconds later a jeep pulled up and Colonel Sink stepped out. "We're sitting down to a Christmas Eve dinner of turkey and hooch back at the division CP, but damned if I don't like ol' Joe Domingus' rancid ass beans better." he greeted the company, reminding Margot that it was, in fact, Christmas Eve. "Hello, Easy Company."

The company chorused a few 'hellos', each one weaker and less enthusiastic than the last. Even Annie couldn't muster a very cheery greeting. It was the first Christmas she was spending away without having received a letter from her family, and even though she knew that none of the Easy members were getting mail in the middle of the forest, she was still on edge about it.

"Men and women." Colonel Sink pulled out a piece of paper as he addressed the group. "General McAuliffe wishes us all a Merry Christmas. What's merry about all this, you ask? Just this. We've stopped cold everything that's been thrown at us from the North, East, South, and West. Now, two days ago the German Commander demanded our honourable surrender to save the USA encircled troops from total annihilation. The German Commander received the following reply, 'to the German Commander: NUTS!' We're giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present, and being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms, we are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all and God bless you."

"Nuts!" a few of the men shouted, the reply having tickled their funny bones.

●●● 

"Merry Christmas everyone." Annie greeted as she stepped over the fallen tree trunk before sitting down on it beside Luz, a warm cup of coffee in her hands that she had just collected from Winters. "And Happy Hanukkah, Lieb."

"Merry Christmas." everyone returned, excluding Liebgott, who breathed out an airy, "Happy Hanukkah."

Most of the men had settled into their foxholes for the night, but Margot hadn't wanted to go to sleep yet, so she stayed up talking with Toye, which then attracted Guarnere over, and then Luz, Liebgott, and eventually, Annie. Before long, the six Easy Company Paratroopers were talking and laughing and, in general, just trying to make the most out of their Christmas Eve.

"This might sound really sad, but I think this is the best Christmas Eve I have had since my mother passed." Margot found herself telling the others for no other reason than she found the conclusion odd and wanted to share it.

Guarnere thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that is sad."

The group broke out into soft chuckles, trying their best to keep their voices down. In the distance, the Germans could be heard faintly singing Christmas carols, which was oddly comforting when you chose to forget that the men singing the sweet songs about love and family also wanted to kill you as soon as they got the chance.

"I miss being home the most during the holidays," Annie admitted as she took a sip of her coffee, closing her eyes slightly and enjoying the feeling of the warm liquid running down her throat. "Winslow family Christmas is a big affair. All the extended family and whatnot. Lots of food, lots of presents."

"Luz family Christmas is the same," Luz piped up as he fished a smoke out of his front pocket and lit it. "Lots of noise, lots of people. Wouldn't trade it for the world."

Margot smirked as she looked to Toye and Liebgott, the two quieter men of the bunch. They were usually just content in sitting and listening, which she could respect. So, she decided to give them a story to listen to.

Margot cleared her throat before speaking. "I do remember one Christmas though when I was pretty young and my mom was still around, and that year I got a sled under the tree from Santa. I was the happiest little kid in the world because you see, there was this huge hill at the end of my long country road where all the farmer's kids and whoever else lived around there would go sledding. I had never had a sled though, so before then, I could never play with the other kids. So, of course, the first thing I wanted to do that Christmas morning was go sledding, so I got dressed, grabbed my brand new sled, and walked all the way down to the end of the road. Kids were sledding and parents were watching and making small talk."

"I climbed all the way up to the top of the hill, watched a few kids go down, and then just kinda went for it; no planning, no caution. I just sat down on my sled and went. What I failed to realize, however, was that there were two sides of the hill. One was just a flat, normal hill for the younger kids. The other side, the one I went down, had little snow ramps for the older kids. Long story short, I hit like three of those ramps in a row, went flying, smacked down into the snow, rolled the rest of the way down, and never went sledding again. To this day I am terrified of sledding."

By the time Margot was done telling her slightly embarrassing story, all five of her friends were doubled over laughing. Even Liebgott, who thus far had only cracked a small smile here and there, had tears fall down his cheeks. 

"Guys, it's not funny, I was traumatized." Margot tried to explain, her own words coming out in between fits of giggles, which only made everyone else laugh even harder. 

"I just can't stop picturing little Margot, all bundled up and ready to go, flying through the air like a goddamn football." Guarnere cackled before he wiped his eyes and took a series of deep breaths.

Annie had her hand on Luz's shoulder, stabilizing herself as she tried not to spill her coffee all over the place. Her laughter was something of pure joy, and when she really laughed, her whole body was involved. Her eyes screwed shut, she smiled so wide that you could see her dimples, and she would have to hold on to something to keep from falling to the ground in a pile of giggles. 

Luz loved it when Annie laughed like that, and he loved it even more when it was him who made her laugh like that. Sometimes the medic would go days without even smiling, so it was a relief to see her truly relaxing and enjoying herself.

Even Toye was cracking up, which was a good sign in anyone's book. If Joe Toye was having fun, everyone was having fun.

After a few minutes, the contagious laughter turned to heavy breathing and the German singing could be heard once more as it echoed through the cold, winter night. A silence fell over the group, but it wasn't a tense silence; not a silence that was begging to be broken, no, it was one that brought with it feelings of content and inner peace. 

Annie wished it could always be like that. If there were a way she could bring over a cup of warm coffee, offer it to a German soldier, ask for a truce, and sing Christmas carols for the rest of the night, she would do it in a heartbeat. She would do anything to have the whole war end right there and then so she and her friends could sit, talk, and laugh for the rest of their lives.

Staring across at Margot, who was tucked in between Guarnere and Toye, Annie smiled at the woman she considered to be family. "I love you, Margot," she told her, the words sort of coming out of left field, but feeling right. "You're my sister and I love you and even though I'm freezing my ass off, I'm glad I get to spend Christmas with you."

Margot was a little shocked by the sentiment at first, but there was never even a second where she doubted that she felt the same way. "I love you too, Annie."

There was a short pause where the two women just sort of smiled at each other, but of course, before long, the sweet moment was ruined by the one and only, Luz. "I love you, Bill." he mocked the girls in a friendly fashion as he batted his eyelashes at Guarnere. 

Guarnere chuckled as he took a puff of his cigarette. "Love you too, George."

"I love you, Liebgott." Luz set his sights on the man sitting on the other side Annie. 

At first, Liebgott just rolled his eyes, making it clear that he wanted nothing to do with whatever nonsense was going on; but after being stared down by the group for almost a full minute, he gave in. "I love you too, George."

Then it took off. Everyone was telling each other that they loved them, half serious and half joking. At one point Luz was confessing his undying love for Liebgott and Annie and Guarnere were in a 'love off' trying to outcompete each other with much love they had for the Germans. 

Guarnere said he would spend a whole night in a foxhole with the entire German army while Annie stated that she would sign on to be Hitler's personal medic for the rest of his life. 

In the chaos of affection, Margot turned to Joe while everyone was distracted and smiled. "I love you, Joe," she whispered, her voice soft and her words loose with meaning, allowing him to take the sentiment whichever way he wanted.

Joe opened his mouth to say something back, possibly to return the sentiment, possibly to make a classic Joe Toye remark, but before he could get a word out, a familiar sound filled the air, an explosion went off not too far from where they were sitting, and the ground shook violently. 

"MEDIC!"


	35. Blue

The sky was being lit up like a firework display, and if it weren't for the fact that it was explosions causing the light show, Annie would have enjoyed the festive addition to what had previously been a lovely Christmas Eve.

Toye grabbed onto Margot before throwing them both down onto the ground, and while one by one the others did the same, Annie had to man-up and dash toward the frantic voices calling for her. 

Explosions were going off all around — a really pleasant Christmas gift from the Germans — trees were falling to the ground, and men were yelling for everyone to take cover. At one point there were so many flashes of light in her field of vision that Annie almost swore it was the middle of the day instead of the middle of the night.

When the small medic finally reached the panicked voices shouting her name, she spotted Lieutenant Welsh on the ground, writhing in pain, with Winters and Nixon around him. "Hi, Lieutenant." Annie greeted, her tone as casual as if she were saying hello to a friendly neighbour on a morning stroll. 

Welsh had been hit in the right thigh by shrapnel from one of the explosions, and he was in a lot of pain if his constant screaming was any indication. Pulling the scarf off of her neck, Annie quickly tied it around the thigh above the wound and pulled tight, slowing the blood flow in case the major artery had been hit. 

Then, Annie treated the situation like any other and poured some sulfa into the wound, followed up by a bandage and a quick shot of morphine for the pain. 

"It's just a scratch, Harry." Nixon held Welsh's hand tight. "You're not getting out of here this easy."

"Captain Nixon is right." Annie switched her focus to calming down the hysterical Lieutenant. "He is an intelligence officer, after all. He knows these things."

Welsh's eyes were glued to the sky above him as he let out the occasional whimper of pain or shudder from being cold. Annie continued to let the soothing words spill out of her mouth, her one hand pressed down firmly on the wound, applying constant pressure, while her other held Welsh's hand. 

When the jeep finally arrived, Winters and Nixon helped carry Welsh to the vehicle and load him up. Eugene showed up not seconds later with another man who needed transport and after the wounded were ready to go, Winters ordered that the two medics went into town to get a hot meal. 

Annie was going to protest and say that she needed to go back to check on Margot and the others, but the look on Winters' face told her there would be no debating it. So, the two medics hopped into the jeep and rode back into Bastogne for a quick break from the front line.

Bastogne, however, was not a break from the front line. If anything, it was worse than the front line. The Germans were bombing the town relentlessly, taking out as many buildings as they could. 

Annie and Eugene had to throw themselves over their patients for most of the drive to protect them from more shrapnel from the explosions. Vehicles were on fire, people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but the real kicker, the real punch in the gut, was when Annie looked up and saw a pile of rubble where the church once stood. 

As the jeep stopped and Annie and Eugene were hit with the sudden realization that they had nowhere to take their wounded, the true panic began to set in. Eugene was the first to dart toward the church, Annie quick on his heels. There were still a few people emerging from the destruction. 

While Annie stopped to help a few people who had just run out, Eugene passed through the stone threshold that was still standing and stood among the rubble. Annie watched out of the corner of her eye as he searched, froze, and bent down to pick something up. 

In Eugene's hand was the blue cloth that Renée had always worn. Even though the male medic and female nurse had only known each other for a short while, Annie could tell that they had bonded over their shared experiences. The two had been friends.

When Eugene stepped back out, the blue cloth still in his hands, Annie didn't know if there was anything she could say to make him feel better. She didn't know if there was anything _anyone_ could say to make him feel better. 

Back in the forest, after the bombs had stopped falling and the ground had stopped shaking, Margot slowly began to stir. She was at the bottom of a foxhole that Toye had dragged her into along with Guarnere, Luz, and Liebgott. 

The woman could hear her heartbeat in her ears and waited until the rhythm returned to normal before daring to speak. "Everyone okay?" she coughed, her lungs full of smoke, and not the kind she was used to.

"I will be once Luz gets the hell off of me." Guarnere's humor was still intact, which meant he was fine. 

Slowly, the five troopers sat up, their uniforms askew and their eyes wide. They looked around at each other, not saying a word, but sharing thoughts just the same. The rest of the company slowly began to exit their foxholes and venture out into the open again, checking on one another and making sure there were no unnoticed injuries. 

It was the same routine every single time. 

Margot couldn't find the strength to move quite yet though, and apparently, neither could the other four. It was such a surreal feeling when one moment you're laughing and talking with your friends, with the people you love, and the next your lying on the ground hoping you're gonna get up and see those very same people again. 

"Well..." Margot ran her hands through her cold, dirty hair and sighed. "Merry Christmas, everyone."

"Happy Hanukkah," Liebgott replied, the usual bitterness gone from his voice. 

Pushing her fingertips into the snow, Margot gave one big heave and threw herself out of the foxhole. The men followed her lead, and just like that, the once packed hole in the ground was completely empty.

When the jeep pulled back into the camp and Annie and Eugene hopped out, the group turned to greet their friend, happy to see that she was still okay. Annie, on the other hand, was indifferent to the relief her presence had on her friends.

After what the blonde medic had seen in Bastogne, there wasn't a single drop of holiday spirit left in her bones. With heavy eyelids and sore feet, Annie trudged past the group without even so much as a wave and lowered herself into one of the foxholes for the night. 

"I'll talk to her." Margot offered, but before she could make a move, Luz was already lifting the cover of the foxhole and sliding in. 

Annie didn't acknowledge Luz in the slightest. No greeting, no eye contact, not even a flinch. She was mentally and physically drained and had no energy to keep up with his constant optimism and light-heartedness. 

Luz, however, wasn't there to make jokes or try to make the medic feel better. He knew when humor could fix a frown, and that was not one of those times. The radioman was unaware of the damage done to Bastogne, but he didn't pry about  _why_  Annie was upset, he was simply there for her  _because_  she was upset. 

"Sometimes I feel like the world is falling apart around me and the ground beneath my feet is always cracking, but I never fall...I just keep anticipating the fall." Annie breathed out, her voice unsure like she couldn't find the right words to describe her feelings. "I keep living in that constant state of limbo. The fear never goes away. I never get any relief."

Luz just nodded as he wrapped an arm around the girl and pulled her close. He knew how she felt. He knew all too well, but right then, at that moment, it wasn't about him. It was about Annie and how she needed someone to just listen. 

Then, in a weird turn of events, Annie started to giggle. At first, Luz wasn't positive that she wasn't crying, but as time went on, he could tell she was laughing. He could pick that laugh out of a lineup. 

"I didn't even know her." Annie referred to Renée as if it were obvious who she was speaking about despite the fact that Luz had never met the woman. "I didn't know anyone in that town, and yet here I am, mourning their deaths. Meanwhile, I watch men from this company die every week and I don't bat an eye. What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you." Luz finally spoke. "Nothing is wrong with you at all."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

The corners of Annie's mouth curled slightly as she rested her head on Luz's shoulder and buried her cold nose into the crook of his neck. "You're gonna make some girl real happy some day, you know that George?" she muttered into his skin.

Luz's breathing hitched when he felt Annie's warm breath on the cold skin of his neck. Smiling down at the sweet medic, he wrapped his other arm around her as well and hugged her tight. Right then he was only concerned about making one girl happy. 

"Merry Christmas, Annie."

"Merry Christmas, George."


	36. Everything in Stride

Easy was on the move again, but if anyone thought they were heading somewhere warmer or maybe just even a little bit less miserable, they were sadly mistaken. Easy Company had done such a good job at holding the line that they were called upon to help hold the Bulge and clear the Bois Jacques, the woods outside of Foy, in preparation for the eventual assault on Foy itself.

The journey through the forest was long, and even though there were a few German machine gun attacks, there was relatively little resistance. The most action anyone saw that day was when Hoobler ran into a German officer on horseback; and after a rather impressive headshot on Hoobler's side, the Easy Paratrooper finally had that Luger he had been looking all over Europe for. 

As the company dug in, Hoobler moved from foxhole to foxhole, showing off his prized possession like a kid on Christmas morning. Compton was doing much of the same, but he wasn't showing off something he had, he was looking for something he had lost; or more accurately,  _someone_  he had lost. Like always, Lieutenant Dike was nowhere to be found.

Stabbing the sharp, pointed end of her shovel into the frozen ground, Margot inhaled before using what little strength she had left to dig up as much dirt as she could. Annie was beside her, digging away as well. If there was one thing that either woman — or hell, any of the men — could go without ever having to do again, it would be digging foxholes. 

"How's your side doing?" Annie asked as she straightened up, wincing at how sore her back was getting. "Does it still hurt sometimes?"

Margot speared the ground with her shovel and took a seat on the edge of the hole. "Every once in a while it's a little tender, but it's still all closed up. The scar leaves much to be desired but hey, at least I'm not dead, right?"

"Right." Annie sighed. She wanted to ask Margot how she was holding up ever since Joe Toye got hit in the back with shrapnel and was pulled off the front lines, but she had no idea how to even pose that sort of question. Annie could see the two had grown close since Normandy, but she didn't know much more than that. Maybe they were good friends, maybe they were more. 

"What about you?" Margot flipped the question on her friend. "You doing okay?"

Annie forced a smile as she kicked at some of the loose dirt with the toe of her boot. "Yeah, of course, I'm doing fine. You know me. I'm always fine."

"Mmhmm," Margot hummed in response, not sure if she believed the medic or not. "Well, if you ever need-"

A single gunshot rang out, cutting off Margot's sentence and sending the company into a state of panic. In the blink of an eye, the half-dug foxholes were filled with men, everyone taking cover from what was assumed to be another German attack. 

Margot and Annie threw themselves into their hole, not even caring about the pain they felt when their weak, stiff bodies collided with the frozen earth.  "Does anybody know where that came from?" Margot called out as she swung her rifle off of her back and poked her head up from the hole in the ground.

There was no direct answer, instead just more questions and theories. Some thought it was a sniper, but Shifty shut that down quick by saying that the gunshot did not sound like any sniper he knew of. Then, the answer was made clear.

"Ah, Jesus, it's Hoob, he's shot!" someone called in the distance, the snow and fog making it too hard for Margot to tell who it was.

"Sniper?" Buck asked.

The man in the distance shook his head. "No, no, he shot himself."

"Medic!" Perconte called, and just like that, Annie was up and out of her foxhole. 

The blonde girl was already digging into her bag for sulfa and bandages as she darted through the snow and trees, and by the time she reached the scene, Hoobler was surrounded by men on every side. "Move!" she ordered, pushing past Lipton. 

"What the hell are you doing with a loaded gun in your pants?" Buck snapped as Hoobler babbled about how he hadn't meant to and how he wasn't touching the Luger at all. 

Annie was actually sort of surprised that Hoobler was able to keep up such a coherent conversation considering he had just shot himself in the thigh and was bleeding pretty badly. "Okay, everyone needs to give me some room to work here!" Annie swung her arms out, forcing the men to jump back to avoid being hit. "Okay, Hoob, just stay calm, alright?"

"It hurts like a sonofabitch." Hoobler gasped as the men near his head held him down to prevent him from squirming too much. "I think maybe I hit bone."

"Keep him warm and keep him distracted." Annie directed the bystanders as Eugene popped up next to her. That man was impossible to find at some moments, but somehow always there when he was needed.

Reaching out, Eugene placed his hands on either side of the wound, holding the leg still as Annie worked. "Did you think it was a German leg, Hoob?" some of Annie's light-hearted comedy in a stressful situation had begun to rub off on the Cajun medic.

As the men took off their coats and covered Hoobler up as much as they could, Annie grabbed an old belt that she had been keeping in her bag for a situation just like this and tied it around Hoobler's thigh above the wound and pulled it tight.

At that point, Hoobler wasn't having a conversation anymore so much as just blurting out whatever came to his head. He wouldn't stop moving, and for some reason, he wanted to watch everything Annie and Eugene were doing.

Lipton and Buck continued to talk to Hoobler, keeping him as calm as possible by reminding him that he was a good shot and that he was tough because he could jump out of planes. The sentiments eased Annie as well because it meant she didn't have to say them herself and could focus solely on stopping the bleeding. 

Pulling out her forceps, Annie made sure they were as clean as possible before getting ready to dig the bullet out. As Eugene stabilized the leg and held the wound open, Annie did her best to find the bullet and quickly and painlessly as she could, but it was in there deep and she just couldn't reach it. 

"How we doing, Doc?" Buck asked.

Annie shook her head in frustration as she tried one last time to locate the bullet. "I can't see a damn thing!" she hissed as her hand slipped on the blood-covered forceps. "We gotta get him to an aid station. I-I can't do this here."

Wiping her bloodied hands on her pants, Annie shoved the forceps back into her bag before pulling out a bandage. The blonde medic was working so fast that she hadn't even noticed that everyone else around her had stopped moving altogether. 

"Doc." Lipton tried to get her attention, but she was too in her own thoughts. "Annie." he tried again.

"What?!" Annie's head snapped up, but the sudden burst of anger left just as quickly as it had arrived when she looked down to see Hoobler laying still, his eyes shut and head resting in Buck's lap. 

Annie couldn't believe it. He had been just fine seconds ago, talking and complaining in usual Hoobler fashion. Maybe she hadn't tied the tourniquet tight enough? Maybe she hadn't looked hard enough for the bullet? Maybe she could have saved him?

"Jesus." Lipton sat back on his haunches, Hoobler's Luger in his hands. 

As Perconte walked off to get a jeep and Buck covered Hoobler's face with one of the jackets, Eugene removed the belt and Annie dug out her scissors. Cutting away the fabric, the blonde girl realized that under all of the layers of clothing, Hoobler had been bleeding way worse than any of them had thought. The bullet had cut the main artery. 

In the end, he died of blood loss. 

When the jeep arrived and Hoobler's cold body was loaded onto it, Annie offered to head up to Battalion CP to inform Winters of the accident. She wasn't really looking forward to retelling the tale, but she knew she needed to get away for a little bit, and the walk would provide her the much-needed silence and solitude. 

Lipton could tell the girl was taking the loss hard though, and he offered to tag along. The 1st Sergeant didn't say a word the whole way to CP, allowing Annie to collect her thoughts and calm her mind. 

Winters and Nixon, who had been the only two at CP when Annie and Lipton arrived, were devastated to hear the news. It was always horrible to hear that another man had been lost, even worse when it was a completely avoidable accident, and to top it all off, it was one of the original Toccoa men. 

"Oh, hell." Nixon sighed after hearing Annie and Lip recount the incident. "It wouldn't have made a difference if you had known. Cut that main artery in the leg, that's it."

"Yes, sir." Lipton nodded. "Well, I'm gonna go back and make sure the boys are all dug in, sir."

Winters, who was shaking like a wet dog, stopped Lipton before he could go. "Where's Dike?" he inquired.

"You wanna see him, sir?" 

Winters shook his head as he wrapped his arms tighter around himself. "No, I just would have expected to get this kind of news from him."

"Well, we were there, sir," Annie spoke up, hoping that her request to inform CP wasn't about to get Lipton in trouble. "I wanted to be the one to tell you. Sergeant Lipton offered to come along."

Turning around, Lipton stepped out of the small wooden hut and started making his way back toward the company. Annie was about to follow suit, but Nixon stopped her. "You look cold, Corporal Winslow." he grabbed a cup from the table beside himself and filled it with hot coffee. "Have a seat. Warm up a little."

Annie wasn't sure if she was supposed to accept the offer or refuse, almost as if it were a test of her strength or something, but when Winters patted the chair next to himself, she decided that a short break wouldn't be the end of the world.

Taking the cup of coffee from Nixon, Annie smiled softly when the warmth spread from the tin to her hands. The first sip was even better.  The medic couldn't remember the last time she had felt even remotely warm, and even though the wooden hut she was sitting in was still open to the elements, she wished she could stay there forever. 

The two Captains watched as Annie happily sipped away at the sub-par coffee, smiling at each other before deciding to speak. "So, how are things?" Winters struck up a conversation.

Adjusting her small hands to a warmer part of the cup, Annie sighed. Where was she supposed to start? They already knew everything that was going on, including the most recent incident with Hoobler. "Things are...okay." Annie started, her mind quickly working through the material and picking out what she thought the men wanted to hear. "Everyone is trying their best to keep their spirits up, but as you know, there are good days and there are bad days. Today was a bad day...but maybe tomorrow will be a good day."

Nixon chuckled slightly as the sweet girl's optimism. "I think Dick was talking more about you, Corporal. How are  _you_  doing?"

"Oh." Annie paused for a moment. Her brain searched for the right words to describe how she was feeling; a mixture of exhaustion, cold, frustration, and yet, still a small drop of hope. There was always hope in Annie; there had to be. "I'm doing well, thank you for asking." she finally answered, settling on something that wouldn't worry the Captains. "I'm...well, you know, but I'm getting by, just like everyone else."

"Just like everyone else," Winters repeated as he popped his collar to keep the wind from touching his neck. "Well, from what I'm hearing from the men, you, Eugene, and Spina are doing a fine job at looking after everyone."

Annie felt a little bit of pride gather in her chest. "Thank you, sir. I know we are all trying our best, that's for sure. Can't help everyone but...we do our best."

Winters placed a cold, shaky hand on Annie's shoulder. "Your best is more than enough."

With that, Annie gulped down the rest of her coffee before it cooled off too much and stood up to leave. As much as she would have liked to stay and chat with Winters and Nixon for the rest of the day, she knew she had to get back and check on the men. 

Back at camp, sitting at the edge of a foxhole beside Guarnere, Margot was taking a break after finishing up her digging. The whole company had heard the news about Hoobler and were taking it easy for a little while, just trying their best to take everything in stride.

"I'm telling you boys, we're screwed." Guarnere hugged his rifle against his chest.

"If you ask me, I'm glad Lieutenant Dike's never around." Penkala shamelessly admitted. 

Malarkey sighed as he shifted inside of his foxhole. "Hey, you know what? We're doing alright, even with Foxhole Norman."

"Yeah, Don, we're doing alright." Guarnere scoffed as Margot huddled closer to him for warmth. "We're doing alright now. In case you ain't noticed, there's a little town down the hill over there, right? And in that town are these guys, and these guys are called Germans. And these Germans got tanks."

"I know." Malarkey nodded.

"And our side's gonna want to go into that town. You wanna take one guess at who they're gonna want to go knocking on the goddamn doors?"

Malarkey shuddered as a particularly cold gust of wind blew by. "I know, Bill, it's me you're talking to here."

"I don't think I've even seen him enough time with my own eyes to remember what he looks like." Margot's teeth chattered as she spoke about Dike. "He's gonna get us killed."

Guarnere wrapped his free arm around the woman in hopes to share the little warmth they possessed. "Jesus Christ, we've gotta do all this with a CO who's got his head so far up his fucking ass that lump in his throat is his goddamn nose."

The other four chuckled slightly as the entertaining outburst. "Hey, 1st Sergeant." Muck exclaimed loudly, alerting the others as Lipton walked over. 

"Hey, boys...and girl," Lipton smirked. "Hey, Muck, what's the word?"

"Oh, you know." Muck shrugged. "Sitting around freezing our ass off. Singing Dike's praises."

"Oh, yeah. Lieutenant Dike." Lipton nodded before taking a seat on the other side of Margot. "Well, I'll tell you, I wouldn't wanna be a replacement officer coming in here, getting thrown in with a group who've known each other for what? Two years? That have been in combat together since Normandy. You're supposed to just show up and lead them? How's a guy do that? How could anyone really hope to gain the respect of the toughest, most professional, most dedicated sonsofbitches in the entire ETO? So, if you ask me, a guy'd have to march off to Berlin and come back with Hitler's mustache or something."

Guarnere let out a hardy laugh, shaking both himself and Margot in the process. "What are you doing here, Lip?" Margot gave him a friendly shove. "Tryna make us like the guy?"

Lipton just chuckled. "Anyway, listen, you guys don't worry about Dike, alright? We all do our jobs, everything will be fine."

Standing up, Lipton gave Margot a pat on the shoulder before heading off again. "You hear that, Bill?" Margot smirked as she rested her head on Guarnere's shoulder. "Everything will be fine."


	37. Crazy Joe

"He had a goddamn Luger in his pants." Buck scoffed as he crouched down at the edge of the foxhole that Margot, Guarnere, and Babe were sharing. "And don't you three do something stupid like that, alright?"

Babe nodded as he slid his hands back into his fingerless gloves. "Try not to, Buck."

"I mean it." Buck turned to Guarnere and gave him a playful smack with the stick he was holding. "You, Wild Bill, I've invested too much goddamn time shaping you into something useful. You do something crazy, get yourself knocked out of this thing..."

"I know, I know, you'll kill me." Guarnere had heard the spiel before. Ever since Holland, when Buck got shot, he hadn't been the same. He was more careful, more calculated, and more worried about every single man and woman in Easy Company.

Buck smiled, indicating that Guarnere was right on the money. "Even if you're dead, I'll still kill you." he then looked to Margot, his bright blue eyes piercing through her. "And you, you don't go tryna be a hero or nothing either, you got it? Something happens to you — or Annie, for that matter — and this whole company is fucked. You two are the backbone of this company."

"I'm not so sure about that, Buck, but I promise I won't put a Luger down my pants anytime soon," Margot assured the on-edge Lieutenant. "I'm not planning on dying, sir."

"Good." Buck nodded as he stood up. "I'll see you guys later, alright, I'm gonna check on the other guys."

Once Buck was out of earshot, Guarnere turned to Margot and laughed. "He just knows that if anything happened to you while Joe was gone, Joe would kill him." he mocked his two friends' close relationship. "Then he'd kill me."

"No one is killing anyone." Margot shrugged off the comment. "I'm gonna be fine, Joe's gonna come back, and no one is gonna have to kill anyone."

Babe, who had been watching Buck walk away, spun around to change the topic. "Crazy Joe McCloskey," he muttered, confusing both Margot and Guarnere at first. "This guy used to hang out the front of Delancey's and just, you know, just stare at people."

Guarnere nodded, the name ringing a bell since he and Babe had grown up only a few streets away from each other. "Yeah, I know who crazy Joe McCloskey is. What the hell's that got to do with anything, Babe?"

"Hmm, Buck kind of reminds me of him now." Babe's eyes shifted to look at Buck again, who was standing over Muck and Penkala's foxhole, no doubt giving them the same speech he had just given Margot and the two men from Philadelphia. 

Guarnere furrowed his brows. "What?"

"You know, ever since he got shot in Holland..."

"Babe's got a point," Margot interjected her opinion on the matter. "I have no idea who crazy Joe whats-his-name is, but Buck is different now. He's always on high alert."

Guarnere looked to Babe, then Margot, and then Babe again. "Wait, wait, wait, wait." he took a moment to gather his thoughts. "What, are you saying he's nuts? 'Cause crazy Joe McCloskey was fucking nuts, Babe. That's why they called him crazy Joe."

"Nah, I'm not saying he's nuts. I'm just saying..."

Guarnere waited for Babe to spit it out, but he never did. "What? What are you saying?"

"Forget it." Babe could tell the subject was a touchy one. 

"What?" 

 "Oh, come on, you've seen him, Bill. He's all wound up like a spring."

"Bingo." Margot nodded.

"Hey, hey, hey, he's fine." Guarnere insisted, his dark eyes darted to Margot to make sure she got the message as well. "It wasn't getting shot that got at him, it was being in that hospital. I've been there, okay? It ain't pretty. Besides, you saw, once he was up and moving around, he was his old self again. I'm telling you, Buck Compton is fine." 

Annie, who was sitting with George, Muck, and Penkala, nodded as Buck made them all promise to stay safe and stay smart. She had heard him give the same speech to Margot just minutes before, and now she was getting it too. 

Once Buck was satisfied with everyone's answer, he took off again, trudging through the snow to find some other troopers to lecture to. "Don't do anything stupid?" Penkala repeated Buck's words. "Who the hell's he talking to? Bunch of morons who volunteered to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Can you get any more stupid than that?"

"Probably not." Annie and Luz said at the same time, earning a small chuckle from the small group. 

"I swum across the Niagara once." Muck said out of nowhere, making Annie do a mental double take at how that topic had come up. 

Annie turned to George, who had the same look of confusion on his face that she did. "I'm sorry, Skip, what?" Annie scoffed, adjusting herself so that every time Luz shook he wouldn't press her further into the cold, frozen dirt wall of the foxhole. 

"I swear." Muck claimed before elaborating. "On a bet."

"What, in a barrel?" Luz inquired, still pretty sure that Muck was pulling his leg.

Muck rolled his eyes when he realized what Luz was getting at. "No. I didn't go over the falls, George. I swam across the river. Ten miles up from the falls. I tell you, that current is damn strong. Must have carried me at least two miles downstream before I got across. But, I got across. Now, personally, I didn't think it was all that stupid, but my mom, my sister Ruth, they gave me all kinds of hell."

"Yeah, I bet." Annie giggled. 

"So did Faye," Muck added for good measure. Faye was his girl back home, and although Annie had only heard the rare story about her here and there, she, just like everyone else, knew that Skip Muck was head over heels for that woman. 

A sly smirk spread across Luz's face. "Ah, sweet Faye Tanner."

Muck was quick to kick George in the leg. "Shut it, George."

"That is another man's woman." Annie gave him a light slap on the helmet. "Have you no shame, George Luz?"

"None. At. All." he joked, enjoying the sight of Annie's sweet smile as he did so.

"Well, they had a point." Penkala shrugged. "You're an idiot."

●●● 

The next day Easy Company was given a rather pleasant surprise, and that surprise was that Lieutenant Peacock was being sent back to the states for a while to join the war bonds campaign. Now, Thomas Peacock was not a bad man, not in the slightest. In fact, many of the troopers agreed that he was one of the nicest men they had ever met.

The problem lay, however, in his leadership abilities. Lieutenant Peacock always tried his hardest, there was no doubt about that, but he was just sort of hopeless when it came to leading a platoon into combat. So, having him gone for a while would just alleviate some of the stress that came with already having quite a few incompetent Lieutenants in Easy Company, Shames and Dike included.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant Peacock." Bull shook Peacock's hand as the company gathered around to wish him farewell. "I can't think of anybody who deserves this more."

Peacock smiled wide. "Thanks."

"I'm really glad that you're going home." Luz shared the sentiment, him being among the few that was really going to benefit from Peacock's departure. Luz had spent many the hour beside Peacock, waiting and waiting while the Lieutenant figured out how to read the map and get them where they needed to be. In many ways, Peacock reminded Luz of Sobel.

The group gathered up tight and gave Peacock three cheers before sending him on his way. As the vehicle took off down the path and the cooks announced that food was ready, a slight feeling of ease spread over the company. 

One thing that was slightly odd, however, was the war reporter who was going around taking photos and videos of the men and women in order to capture what the war was like for the people back in America. Of course, the videos and photos would never  _actually_ show what the war was like because every trooper was ordered to smile and look happy in hopes to sell more war bonds.

No one back home wanted to donate money to a bunch of sad, cold, exhausted-looking Paratroopers who wanted nothing more than a hot shower, some warm food, and a decent bed. So they smiled, waved, and pretended like they hadn't spent the past months fighting for their lives and watching their friends die.

Margot, who had just finished posing for a picture with Malarkey and Liebgott, was heading back toward her foxhole when she heard a familiar voice. At first, she thought she had to have been hearing things, but then she heard it again. Running up, Margot located the voice.

There he was. Joe Toye was standing there, a sling on his arm, talking to Winters. As the two finished up their conversation about how no one appreciated General Patton coming in and deciding to save Easy Company back in Bastogne like they were damsels in distress, Margot waited patiently to greet her friend.

Removing his helmet, Joe took the sling off and requested that Winters let him return to the line with everyone else. Eventually, Winters agreed and waved him off. As Joe turned to leave, he spotted Margot standing a few feet away and stopped in his tracks.

"Look at you, all alive and shit." Margot beamed, more than thrilled to have her friend back on the line, but also worried about why he had only been gone a few days. "Why are you here?"

"I missed you too much." he laughed, slowly approaching the woman that he had thought about every day while being cooped up in that damn aid station. 

"You fucking liar." Margot shook her head. "How's your shoulder? Will it hurt if I hug you?"

Joe didn't even need to give an answer to that, because yes it was going to hurt and little, and no he didn't care in the slightest. Reaching his arms out, the large man ignored the stiffness in his body and pulled the raven-haired machine-gunner in for a hug. "Missed you," he muttered into her hair, ignoring the fact that there were other people around. 

"Come on." Margot pulled back from the hug and grabbed Joe's hand. "There's a lot of people who are gonna be damn happy to see you again."

Like an excited child, Margot lead Joe over to where the company was lining up for some lunch. "Hey, Bill!" Margot called. "Look who showed back up after only three days."

"Hey, Joe." Guarnere welcomed his friend back with a handshake. "Good to see you, pal. What the hell you doing back here?"

"I had to make sure you were on top of things." Joe teased his friend while simultaneously questioning his leadership abilities as platoon sergeant. 

Guarnere scoffed. "I'm on top of things. Tied me own boots once last week. All by meself."

"That's true." Margot played along with the joke. "I saw it with my own two eyes."

As the three friends hopped into the food line with everyone else, the rest of the company welcomed Joe back one by one. Muck and Penkala were among the most enthusiastic, asking all sorts of questions, to which Joe simply told them he escaped from the aid station.

"Where'd you get hit?" one of the younger, newer guys asked.

Joe looked at the kid like he was a whole different species. "What's that?"

"Ah, it's Webb." Muck shrugged the guy off. "Replacement."

"Really?" Joe gave Muck a look. "Thought it was some guy I've known for two years and forgot his face."

Margot gave her friend a pat on her arm. "Still got that same Joe Toye sass."

"Joe got hit in the arm," Penkala explained, always one to be nicer to the new guys. "New Year's Eve gift from a Luftwaffe."

"And he didn't even cry." Annie showed up out of nowhere, a smile on her face as she joined in on greeting Joe. "Good to see you're back. A little soon, I would say, but at least you actually went to the aid station, unlike  _some people_."

The group chuckled as Annie stared down Margot. "You know I don't stand by that decision. It was just so early in the game. Didn't wanna leave before any of the fun began." Margot tried to defend her choices. "But now I would gladly spend a week in the aid station for something as minor as a paper cut. I, for one, am over this whole sitting in a freezing foxhole business."

"Amen." Guarnere chimed in.

"A lot of you guys been injured?" Webb asked, curious as to the various wounds sustained in combat. He was too fresh to have seen much of it for himself.

Martin scoffed from his place in line behind Webb. "It's called wounded, peanut. Injured's when you fall out of a tree or something."

As Muck got his bowl filled by the cooks, he turned to Webb and took him under his wing. "Don't worry, there's enough crap flying around here, you're bound to get dinged sometime. Almost every single one of these guys and ladies has been hit at least once. Except for Alley, he's a two-timer. He landed on broken glass in Normandy and got peppered by a potato masher in Holland. Now, Bull, he got a piece of exploding tank in Holland. Margot, she got sliced open by something or other in Normandy. And George Luz here...has never been hit. You're one lucky bastard."

Luz sighed as he chewed on his food. "Takes one to know one, Skip."

"Consider us blessed." Muck continued to take Webb on a trip down the war-wound hall of fame. "Now, Liebgott, the skinny little guy, he got pinked in the neck in Holland. And right next to him, that other skinny little guy, that's Popeye. He got shot in his scrawny little butt in Normandy."

"And Buck got shot in his rather large butt in Holland," Malarkey added as Buck turned around and gestured to his rear-end for emphasis. 

Penkala chuckled. "Yeah, kind of an Easy Company tradition, getting shot in the ass."

"Even 1st Sergeant Lipton over there." Muck pointed to where Lipton was mixing up his food and leaning against a tree beside Guarnere. "He got a couple of pieces of tank shell burst at Carentan. One chunk in the face, another chunk almost took out his nuts."

Guarnere looked to Lipton and cracked a smile. "How are those nuts, Sarge?"

"Doing fine, Bill." Lipton just went along with it. "Nice of you to ask."

"And this little ray of sunshine right here," Muck wrapped his arm around Annie as she tried to walk past with her food. "This is one of our medics, Annie. She's pretty much dealt with every wound I just mentioned. And she even got grazed by a few bullets as well, courtesy of Holland."

Annie rolled her eyes and looked to Webb, a knowing smirk on her face. "Don't let these guys scare you, yeah? They may seem tough now, but trust me, one little piece of shrapnel and they're on the ground begging me to give 'em a nice big shot of morphine to make all the pain go away." 

"Wonder what will happen if she ever gets hit." Malarkey posed the scenario to the group. 

"She'll sit up, kill the man who shot her, and then promptly tend to her own wounds," Liegbott answered, earning various nods from the rest of the men. 

Annie shook her head as she scooped a spoonful of her food into her mouth. "That's implying I'll get hit. I plan on staying just as lucky as George and Skip, thank you very much. I don't have time to be dealing with myself when you guys go around getting hit by everything that moves."

"Yeah," Webb laughed, starting to feel braver and more comfortable. "I heard there was a guy who even shot himself with his own gun."

The company went silent. Annie, who not even a second before had been smiling and enjoying the light-hearted banter, had frozen. The blonde girl had yet to fully get over Hoobler's death because, in the grand scheme of things, it took a while for the realization that he was really gone to actually sink in. It had all happened so fast that for the first day or two, it felt like a fever dream. 

Annie dropped her spoon back into her bowl and sighed. She knew it wasn't Webb's fault because how could he have known that out of all of the regiments, he had been placed in the one where the incident took place? And how could he have known that out of all the rumors that flew, he had mentioned the one that wasn't a rumor at all?

"Yeah," Annie nodded as she placed her bowl down on the nearest flat surface. "That Hoobler, always doing stupid things like that. Guess he just wasn't lucky, huh?"

As Annie walked off to take some time to herself and clear her head, the company turned on Webb. The poor guy was so new and so fresh; how was supposed to know?  


	38. Less Than an Hour

On the afternoon of January 3rd, most of Easy Company headed back to their old position overlooking Foy. A few men, however, did remain in the Bois Jacques attached to Dog Company to hold the main line of resistance. 

After what felt like hours of walking, the group made it back to the position near Foy, only to find that it was nothing like they remembered. The foxholes had been trashed, the trees had been blown six ways from Sunday, and large branches littered the forest floor.

"Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me!" Toye's loud, characteristically raspy voice growled as he jumped into what used to be his foxhole. "Someone's gonna die. Someone's gonna fucking die."

Rolling her eyes, Margot turned around to entertain Joe's temper tantrum. "What are you crying about back there?"

"Guarnere, look at this shit!" Joe hoped he could get a bigger reaction out of the Platoon Sergeant. "One of those 1st Battalion fuckers took a dump in my foxhole!"

Guarnere, however, couldn't really be bothered to care. "I think they shit in everyone's foxhole, Joe." he looked around at the utter destruction of the forest. "I don't think they wanted to spend much time above ground."

As the company neared the front line, Lipton bent down and pulled out his binoculars. Across the field, Foy was full of Germans. Their artillery was still hidden, but there was no doubt they had some. 

With the order to hang in, the troops started strengthening their cover and fixing up their foxholes. Using the fallen tree branches to their advantage, the men and women started piling them up around the holes in the ground, hoping it could help with the cover, or at the very least, cut back on the wind during the nights.

Men used shovels as hammers as they smacked smaller branches into place along the walls of the foxholes for support. All-in-all, Easy Company was in the midst of what could only be described as a mass home-improvement project. 

Trying not to trip on the ground beneath her feet, Margot dropped an armful of smaller tree limbs down onto the snow, her jacket covered in pine-needles after the fact. "I look like a damn tree myself," she commented before patting herself clean. 

"Smallest tree I've ever seen." Joe scoffed as he dropped another pile right down next to Margot's

"Ugh, I think you mean _best_  tree you've ever seen."

Joe couldn't help but crack a small smirk. He could never win with Margot. Every snarky comment he made, she had a perfectly thought out rebuttal. It was one of the things he liked about her; one of the many things.

Margot could tell she had bested Joe in the tree debate, but before she had a chance to gloat, the familiar sound of an incoming mortar whistled through the air. "Incoming!" Lipton shouted as he ran back for the foxholes.

Buck's voice followed soon behind, and it was laced with pure panic. "Take cover!" he screeched.

It was almost impressive how fast Easy Company could go from doing mundane stuff like cleaning up to running for their lives when they needed to. It was a fine-tuned skill that they had acquired over many months, and many trials and errors. 

They hadn't always been that efficient, and they hadn't always been that lucky. 

Before Margot even knew what was going on, she was running. Her legs were moving as fast as they could and her eyes were frantically searching for a foxhole to jump into. Explosions went off all around her, but all she could hear was the sound of her own heart beating in her ears. It was a loud thumping sound, almost like someone was hitting one of those big marching-band drums over and over again right next to her head. 

"Joe!" she looked behind herself to check if he was still there. 

Joe was a few meters back, waving at Margot to keep running. Margot wasn't sure why, but something told her that he was too far away; that she needed to wait for him. 

"Keep run-" he started, but an explosion went off right behind him, shaking the earth and buckling his legs. As he fell, it was like everything moved in slow motion, the same way it had when Julian had been shot. 

Margot turned to go back and help him. She was so close. This time she was going to reach him. This time she was going to save him. 

Margot's vision went blurry as the mortar hit the ground in between Joe and herself. Dirt and snow shot up into her face, and the force of the explosion sent her body flying back. For a brief moment in the air, while the German explosive sent her soaring, she remembered how she had felt when she went flying off of that snow ramp on her sled. It was the same feeling. 

She remembered how everyone had laughed when she had told that story on Christmas Eve. She remembered how Joe had laughed.

Then she hit the ground hard. Everything went black for a minute or so and she could feel her body screaming in pain. Everything hurt, and yet, nothing hurt. She could hear every scream of the men around her, and yet, there was only a loud, high-pitched tone in her ears. Her body shook violently again and again as the German firepower kept coming, but eventually, like it always did, it stopped.

Margot wasn't sure how long she laid there in the snow; it felt like days, but it was probably only a few seconds. It took everything the woman had in her to force her eyes open. For a fraction of a second, she felt like she was waking up after a full night's rest. Her body remained still as her eyes flickered back and forth, the treetops and late-afternoon sky only giving away so much information as to what had happened.

Then she heard a voice. It was faint, and it was panicked, but she could never forget that voice. 

"I gotta get up." the words echoed her thoughts exactly. She had to get up. She had to get up. 

Slowly, Margot pushed her fingertips into the ground and pushed herself into a sitting position. 

"I gotta get up."

She blinked a few times. 

"Help!"

Then, all at once, she snapped back into reality. There had been an attack. She and Joe had gotten separated. An explosion went off. Jumping to her feet, Margot took a few steps back in the direction Joe had been, but she couldn't see him.

"Help!"

She broke into a sprint, and after making it to the other side of a large fallen tree, she saw him. Lying in the snow, screaming for help, was Joe Toye. He looked up at her, his dark eyes begging for her to save him, then he looked down. Margot followed his gaze and immediately felt like she was going to throw up.

His entire lower right leg had been blown off. 

"Help me," he said again, this time quieter, this time only to her.

Margot's mind was running a million miles a second. She wasn't a medic. She only knew very basic first aid. What was she supposed to do? She thought about it as long as she deemed acceptable before settling on doing what she had seen Annie do a hundred times before.

"It's okay, Joe." calming words poured out of her mouth as she rushed to his aid and dropped down beside him. "Don't look." she cupped his face in her hands and forced him to look up at her. "Don't look, okay? You're gonna be okay."

"I'm gonna be okay?" he choked out. 

Margot nodded way harder and way faster than she needed to. "Yeah, don't you worry, okay? You're gonna be just fine."

Lipton's voice could be heard in the distance as he ordered everyone to stay in their foxholes. That's when it dawned on Margot that there could be another attack any at any minute once the Germans believed they had come out of the safety of their holes in the ground once again.

"We gotta get you out of here." Margot breathed as she stood up and looped her arms under Joe's armpits. 

As she started to try and pull the large man through the snow, Guarnere jumped out from the smoke. "Shit." he cursed when he saw Joe's leg lying a full foot or so away from the rest of his body. 

"You gotta help me, Bill." Margot pleaded as she beckoned him over with a nod of her head. "We gotta get him out of here."

It was near impossible to move Joe, however, because he was in a full-blown state of shock. He kept muttering about getting his helmet, his arms flailing all over the place as he did so. "You said you'd get back to the states before me." he directed his comment at Guarnere.

"You ain't going anywhere, you're alright," Guarnere told him the same things that Margot had. 

Slowly, inch by agonizing inch, the two troopers dragged their wounded friend through the forest. The only thing on Margot's mind was getting Joe to safety. In her mind, at that moment, if she could get him into a foxhole, he would be just fine. The fact that half of his leg was missing hadn't fully registered yet.  

Then the explosions started back up again. Just like last time, Lipton's voice could be heard screaming for the men to get to their foxholes. "Come on!" Buck popped his head out of the nearest hole. "Come on!"

"Go!" Guarnere started to push Margot toward the hole. "Go! Get outta here!"

"What? Are you nuts?" she snapped back. "You'll never be able to pull him by yourself!"

"Hurry up!" Buck continued to yell at the three. "You're gonna get bombed!"

Margot refused to leave Joe's side, but that wasn't going to cut it for Guarnere. Letting go of Joe, he reached over and picked up the tall, toned woman. Margot fought the whole way, but Guarnere was bigger and stronger, and before she knew it she was being dropped into a foxhole with Buck Compton.

"Bill!" she shouted after him as he ran back to Joe.

Margot tried to climb out of the foxhole, she did, but Buck wouldn't let her. "You promised me!" he shouted in her ear, his arms wrapped around her entire body. "You promised me you wouldn't be a hero!"

Then the bomb hit. A flash of light filled Margot's vision, dirt flew up into the air like a geyser, and she was screaming. Buck was screaming too. They both tried to get to the two men who had been hit by the blast, but another mortar hit a few feet in front of them, sending them flying back into the foxhole.

"No!" the word ripped through Margot's throat as she clambered out of the hole, not even caring that the explosions hadn't stopped yet. This time it didn't take her a minute to get her act together. This time she remembered right away what had happened.

The machine-gunner froze in her tracks when she saw them. Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye. They were lying in a pile on the ground, Joe's leg still gone, Guarnere's leg brutalized beyond recognition. 

"No, no, no, no," she muttered to herself as she dropped down beside them. One hand was on each man, violently shaking them. "Come on, guys." tears were running down her cheeks. "You're okay. You're okay. You're okay."

Slowly they began to stir. They weren't dead. Margot felt relief like she had never felt before rush through her body. They weren't dead. 

Hearing footsteps, Margot looked up to see Buck standing over the three of them, his blue eyes wide and filled with fear. "MEDIC!" he screamed bloody murder before dropping his rifle beside himself and removing his helmet, letting that too fall to the ground. 

With the help of Buck, Margot got the newly conscious Guarnere propped up against a tree before she went to Joe's aid. Guarnere was taking it like a champ, his eyes refusing to look down at his own injury, his mouth moving fast as he told Joe over and over again that it was going to be okay.

As Buck slowly walked away, his face still as pale as it had been when he first saw the two men, Margot moved to Joe and positioned herself behind him. Slowly, she pulled him up between her legs, his back resting on her chest and his head lolled onto her shoulder. "You're gonna be okay," she whispered to him as she held his hand with one of her own and used the other to wipe the blood off of his face.  

Guarnere watched as the woman held Joe, her words and hands working to make him feel as safe and secure as possible, and he knew that the jokes he had made had held some truth. No one knew why or how it started, but Margot Kessler and Joe Toye had something special that words couldn't exactly describe. They had always been there for each other, whether other people had seen it or not. 

When Annie arrived with Eugene on her heels, she had to take a second to process what she was looking at. Margot stared up at her, her green eyes filled with terror and tears. Splitting up, each of the medics took a man, Annie going to Guarnere and Eugene going to Joe.

As the Eugene worked on Joe's leg, Joe groaned in pain, his head pressing back hard into Margot's shoulder. Margot didn't care though. She let him slam his head into her shoulder and squeeze her hand hard enough to nearly break it. Never once did she falter from whispering positive things into his ear.

"Jesus, what's a guy gotta do to get killed around here?" he spoke, forming his first real, coherent sentence since he had teased Margot about being a tree. 

"You can't die." Margot chuckled, her nose pressed against the top of his ear. "You still gotta kill Hitler and have Joe Toye day enacted, remember?"

When the back-up medics arrived with the board to carry the men out, Eugene and Annie sent Guarnere first. "Hey, Lip." Guarnere looked up at the 1st Sergeant as he was loaded onto the board. "They got ol' Guarnere this time."

Guarnere cried out in pain as the medics moved him, but once he was stable again, he was fine. The bone sticking out of his leg was clearly visible due to the fact that most of the skin had been blown off, and although Annie hated to admit it, he was probably going to lose the leg just like Joe. 

"Hey, Joe, I told you I'd beat you back to the states." Guarnere still held his humor as he was being carried away. "You two ladies be good, you hear? Don't let ol' Guarnere find out you went and got yourselves killed."

Margot nodded as she waved goodbye. "Don't you worry about us," Annie assured him. "You just worry about all the nurses that are gonna be fawning over you."

When Luz arrived to give Lipton the news on Buck, he couldn't help but stare down at Joe's stump for a second. Buck was sitting on a fallen tree not too far away, slumped over with his head in his hands. If getting shot in Holland had made him jumpy, God knows what watching two of his best men get hit by explosives would do.

As Lipton went to talk to Buck, Luz looked back down at Joe one last time. He watched as Margot held him tight, her thumb rubbing the back of his hand gently as he held onto her. Then he looked to Annie, who was cleaning up her supplies, the snow around her red from Guarnere's blood. 

Margot wasn't paying much attention to Luz, however. She wasn't paying much attention to anyone but Joe. It was slowly starting to sink in that she was going to have to say goodbye to him, and for good that time. 

When the medics came back to take Joe away, Margot found herself fighting with her own body to let go of him. He moaned as the medics moved him, just like Guarnere had, but he never took his eyes off of Margot. 

It was at that moment that Margot realized she held feelings stronger than friendship for Joe Toye. She had suspected it for a while — hell, half the company had suspected it — but it wasn't until she was being forced to part ways that she felt herself wanting to blurt out all of her feelings. She couldn't though, and she knew that. It wouldn't be fair to him and it wouldn't be fair to her. 

He was looking at months of recovery time before he would be released from a hospital and she was looking at what could be months left at war. Maybe the war would end soon, or maybe she wouldn't even live to see the end. Either way, it wouldn't be fair to burden him with her feelings when she knew she might never see him again. So, she settled for something else.

Pulling her dog tags over her head, Margot dropped them into Joe's hand and guided his fingers around them. Joe looked down at his hand and then back up at Margot. "But what if you-" 

"Die?" Margot finished his sentence before he could. "I've got no one to send them home to even if I did. Besides Annie and Bill, you're the only family I have. I want you to have them. Keep them safe for me. When the war's over — if I'm still alive — I'll come get 'em from you. Deal?"

Joe tightened his hand around the necklace. "Deal."

That was that last word spoken between the two before the medics carried Joe away. Margot watched him go, her heart pounding against her chest, her breathing slow and deliberate. In less than an hour, Margot had lost two of her closest friends. In less than an hour, Margot had lost two-thirds of her family. 

In less than an hour, Margot had had her loved ones ripped away from her. The last time that had happened, her mother had passed; and when her mother had passed, her whole world had been turned upside down. 

Margot wasn't sure she could handle another flip. 


	39. Shellshock

Margot's left leg bounced up and down as she sat on the trunk of a fallen tree. Her helmet had been tossed haphazardly onto the ground by her feet, her hair was tangled and dirty, and her head was in her hands. Ever since she had said goodbye to Toye and Guarnere, she hadn't said a word. Not one word. To anyone. 

Buck Compton had been taken off the line due to a recommendation from Annie and Eugene, which Winters was quick to agree with. Buck had completely shut down after he watched his friends get hit. Luz had said he was fine. He wasn't fine. 

Annie tried to get Margot to go to the aid station as well. "Get some rest." the blonde medic had suggested. "Come back when you feel ready." 

But Margot couldn't leave. She wasn't sure if it was because she felt that she needed to stay with her friends, or if it was because she was worried that if she left, she might never come back. Margot's mind was constantly at war with itself, one half telling her it was okay to grieve the loss of her friends — even if they weren't dead — and the other half told her she was being weak. 

Margot still did her job, though. She did what she was told, when she was told. She just didn't speak, not unless she was being spoken to by someone of a higher rank or speech was necessary to complete a task. She had nothing to say; not even to Babe or Annie. There had been a few times she felt like opening up, but the man she wanted to open up to was gone. The only person she had really ever opened up to, besides Annie, was gone. The only person who knew her D-day story was gone. 

Annie worried day and night about her friend. When she visited Buck at the aid station with Malarkey, she saw many similarities between the male Lieutenant and female Sergeant. Buck was quiet too; not even a peep when Malarkey tried to read him a letter from home. It was scary, to say the least, and even though Annie wasn't really a religious person, she prayed every night that she would never have to see Margot on an old, small cot with bloodshot eyes and a blank, pale expression that held every single emotion imaginable while also holding no emotion at all. 

A few days later, Easy had managed to clear the woods East and West of Foy, which meant that sooner rather than later, the assault on Foy would be taking place. The only problem was, was Easy company ready for that? Dike was always gone, Lipton was spreading himself thin by pretty much looking after the entire company, 2nd Platoon had lost its platoon leader and one of its best men, and over half of the troopers were running on fumes.

Peering over at Margot, who was still sitting on that damn tree, Annie made a mental note to check on her in a little while before turning back to the conversation she was having with Luz, Malarkey, Muck, and Penkala; a conversation in which she was only about half invested in. 

"You fellas know I got no reason to bullshit you, right?" Luz huddled the group together. "Look, I'm not gonna bullshit you. This is what I saw. It was so unbelievable, you might not believe me. So, you-know-who comes running up to Lipton. He's got no helmet, no gear, no nothing." Luz then broke out his Dike impression. "Ah, 1st Sergeant Lipton, you organize things here, and I'm gonna go for help."

The men chuckled, and even Annie managed a small smile. "I need to go polish my oak leaf clusters." Luz continued. 

Clearing his throat loud enough for the gathering to hear, Lipton called Luz over, which in turn caused the group to disperse. Muck and Penkala headed back to their foxhole, Malarkey went off to do whatever it was that he did, and Annie slowly made her way over to Margot. 

Sitting down beside the machine-gunner, Annie made her presence known by setting her hand on Margot's knee. Sometimes the taller woman was so lost in her own head that she didn't know someone was around her until they spoke. "Hi." Annie greeted, keeping it simple because she had no expectation for her friend to reply. "It's getting kinda late, you know? Maybe you should head back to your foxhole soon. I think Babe's waiting for you."

Margot took a moment to process the words before she hummed slightly in response, the shaking of her leg stopping when she placed her foot flat on the ground and sat up. 

Annie wished her friend would say something, anything, that didn't have to do with her job. She wished that she would at least say out loud that she missed Bill and Joe. Just once. "Hey, I got something you might want." Annie fished a package of cigarettes out of her pocket. "Traded a chocolate bar for them. I know you've been out for a while."

Margot's eyes shifted to the box. She was unsure if she wanted to take them or not, but eventually, she wrapped her slender fingers around the gift and accepted it. "Thanks," she muttered before standing up and walking away. 

Annie watched her move between the foxholes before jumping down into her own and snuggling up next to Babe. The redhead wrapped his arm around Margot and pulled her close, his eyes flickering up to meet the gaze of the blonde medic. The two shared a knowing nod before Babe went back to tending to Margot, his hand reaching into his pocket to pull out a lighter for the unlit smoke resting between his partner's dry, cracked lips. 

"Hey." Luz wandered over, kicking Annie's boot with his own and pulling her out of her slight daze. "You good?"

Annie jumped slightly, but when she saw it was Luz, she smiled and stood up. "Oh, I'm fine." she tucked her hands up into her sleeves. "I'm just worried about Margot. Every day she reminds me more and more of Buck."

"I think she'll be just fine." Luz, like always, chose to be optimistic. "Just gotta give her some time, is all. Babe was like that after Julian died, and he's fine now. Just takes time."

Annie drew in a deep breath, holding the air in her lungs for a few seconds before exhaling and letting as much stress out with the air as she could. Luz chuckled a little before taking a final puff of his smoke and flicking it to the ground. 

He turned to walk away, but before he could even take a step, a flash of light burst through the trees a few meters away. More explosions. "Incoming!" Luz shouted as he reached back and grabbed Annie by the arm, pulling her along behind himself as he ran. 

Another mortar hit right beside the two, knocking a tree down right in front of them. The medic and the radioman dove out of the way just in time, their bodies hitting the snow hard, just missing getting crushed by the tree. 

Dirt shot up into Annie's face as another explosion went off, and then another, and another. Her ears were ringing and she tried her best to stand up again, but every attempt she made was shut down by the violent shaking of the ground when another German explosive hit. 

"Luz!" Muck and Penkala shouted from their foxhole a few feet away. "Annie! Come on!"

Luz grabbed Annie again to make sure she was with him every step of the way. The two crawled as fast as they could toward the hole, Muck and Penkala shouting at them the whole time. They were almost there. Just a little further to go and they would be safe.

One second Muck and Penkala were there, waving their arms and yelling, and the next, they weren't. A flash of light blinded Annie as a mortar landed right in their foxhole; dirt shot into the air, and the shouting stopped.

When the dust settled, the hole was empty, almost like there had never been two men in it in the first place. Annie felt her heart jump into her throat as she and Luz froze. They laid there for a while, just staring at the foxhole, hoping that Muck and Penkala would poke their heads out at any moment, but they didn't. They wouldn't. They were gone.

Luz was the first to move. With a small groan, he pushed himself up and managed to get his feet under himself again. When he noticed that Annie was still just staring, her pupils fixed, not blinking, he reached down and pulled her up by the back of her jacket. 

"Come on." he grabbed her and once again pulled her along. 

The two ran, almost tripping once or twice, before jumping into the nearest foxhole with Lipton. The 1st Sergeant grabbed the two smaller troops and wrapped one arm around each of them, holding them tight as the explosions continued to echo through the forest. 

"Muck and Penkala!" Luz turned his head toward Lipton and shouted.

Lipton shook his head, the noise around him too loud to hear. "What?"

"Muck and Penkala got hit!" Luz repeated as the blast from another mortar knocked the cover off of their foxhole.

The three Paratroopers held their arms over their heads and faces, shielding their eyes and mouths from the flying debris. Slowly, after what seemed like hours, the attack came to an end, and as the last explosive shook the earth, a man's voice could be heard telling people to stay down until the 'all-clear' was given.

Her whole body shaking from what she had just witnessed, Annie slowly lowered her arms. Just as she opened her eyes again, an explosive landed in the dirt right at the edge of the hole. All three jumped slightly, their bodies expecting to feel the blast and sudden death that was to come, but nothing happened. The cylindrical weapon smoked, but it didn't go off. It was a dud.

Annie's heart was pounding against her chest so hard that she was sure every trooper for miles around could hear it. She was supposed to be dead. She was supposed to be like Muck and Penkala, but she wasn't. 

His breathing fast and uneven, Luz reached into his pocket and pulled out a smoke. It took him a couple of tries to light it because his hands were shaking so much, but eventually, he got it and took a deep inhale. 

As the smoke blew out through his lips, Lipton reached over and plucked the cigarette from his mouth, promptly taking a drag for himself. "Thought you didn't smoke." Luz managed to speak.

"I don't." Lipton took another puff before handed the cigarette to Annie.

The small girl hesitated at first, but her desire to feel something other than fear greatly outweighed all of her previous reasons for not smoking, so she took the cigarette from Lipton and took a small inhale. She coughed a few times but took another hit right away. 

Luz pulled out two more smokes, lighting both before handing one to Lipton. As the three sat there in silence, cigarettes between their lips, their eyes never left the unexploded mortar. There it sat, still steaming away, taunting them almost; telling them that they were only alive because it allowed it. 

When the all-clear was finally given, Annie hopped out of the foxhole and headed straight for Margot. The raven-haired woman was still right where she had been before, sitting in her hole with Babe by her side. The two looked shaken up, but otherwise, no worse for wear. 

As the medic made her rounds, she came across the smoldering hole in the ground where Muck and Penkala had been. There was nothing left of them; nothing but half of the rosary that Muck always wore around his neck, and that was given to Malarkey. 

In a matter of days, Malarkey had lost his three best friends in the company, Compton, Muck, and Penkala. Annie wanted to ask him if he was alright, but she couldn't. Of course he wasn't alright. How could he be?

The blonde girl debated with herself for a while, trying to decide if she should say something or not. Before she could step in, however, someone else did. Walking up beside Malarkey, Margot placed her hand on his shoulder. The redheaded mortarman looked up at the black-haired machine-gunner and the two locked eyes. They didn't speak, not even one word, but the thoughts and emotions they communicated to each other were plentiful. 

Margot knew exactly how Malarkey felt, and finally, Malarkey understood Margot. 

Looking down at the rosary in Malarkey's hands, Margot smiled. She wished she had something of Bill's and Joe's to hold and keep close to her. "You won't forget them," she spoke softly; her first meaningful words in days. "I know you think you will, it's what I thought. You think you'll forget their faces or their voices, but you won't. You can't."

Malarkey forced a smile and gave a small nod, his fingerless-gloved hand closing around the cross and beads. He hadn't known it, but that was exactly what he had wanted to hear.

●●● 

Back in their position overlooking Foy, Easy Company was just waiting for orders from the Regiment to start the assault on the small town. They knew it would happen, they just didn't know when.

Members of Easy often checked up on Malarkey and Margot, Lipton and Annie the most, but the two had found comfort in one another. They often stayed up late, talking about this and that, usually dancing around the real topic they wanted to discuss, but ending up discussing it in the end. 

Sometimes Margot felt guilty when she remembered that — even though it felt like they had —Bill and Joe hadn't actually died. It felt like they had sometimes, but they hadn't. On the rare occasion, Margot had to stop herself from mentioning her plan to hopefully visit them someday when the war was over. She couldn't do that to him. Not when he would never be able to see his friends again, or hear their laugh, or share his stories with them. 

What Margot never knew, though, was that Malarkey didn't care about all of that for a second. Margot knew how he felt, and that was all that mattered. When he wanted to be left alone, she respected that. When he wanted to talk, she would listen. And when he just wanted someone to sit with him in silence, she would plop down, pull her knees to her chest, and just exist with him.

"Hey, guys." Lipton approached the two as they sat in a foxhole together. "Hey, ugh...didn't I hear you say you wanted to bring a Luger home for your kid brother?" Lipton turned his attention to Malarkey. 

"Yeah." Malarkey nodded.

Reaching into his jacket, Lipton pulled out the Luger that Hoobler had gotten from the German officer. "Well, why don't you give him that?" he handed the gun over. 

Malarkey took the weapon and inspected it. "It's Hoob's, right?"

"Yeah, I was gonna get rid of it but...I don't know." Lipton shrugged before offering Malarkey a chance to head up to Battalion and work as Winters' runner for a few days. Malarkey denied the offer, however, saying that he would rather stay with the rest of the company.

Instead, Lipton told the two they should at least head back for an hour or so to say goodbye to Buck, which both Malarkey and Margot happily agreed too. Margot hadn't seen Buck since the day he had been taken off of the lines, but she could tell he looked a lot better. He even smiled once or twice. Before leaving, Buck gave Margot a hug and informed her that he didn't regret holding her back that day for a second. In confidence, he told her that if she had been hit, he thought he would never be able to recover. 

He thanked her for keeping her promise to him; for not being a hero. 

The shellings had taken their toll on the men and women of Easy Company in more ways than one, but somehow, someway, the troopers found a way to push through and persevere. There had been hard days, and there were still hard days to come, but as long as Easy stuck together, they could make it through anything. 

That theory, however, was severely tested when the assault on Foy took place and Easy Company headed into combat as a broken company without any real leader. 


	40. Here We Go Again

2nd Platoon was, in many ways, almost like a whole new platoon. After losing Guarnere, Toye, Muck, and Penkala, it was severely lacking in numbers and good leaders. Winters had hoped that he could move Margot up to Platoon Sergeant and give her a chance to prove the leadership skills he knew she had, but she was still dealing with the loss of her friends; as was Malarkey, who would have also been a good choice. In the end, the person chosen to lead the broken platoon was Lipton.

1st Sergeant Carwood Lipton was a good man and exceptional leader, so no one in 2nd Platoon even batted an eye when he took over. The only problem was, with having personal responsibility for 2nd, Lipton wasn't as free to police 1st and 3rd as much. 

On the morning of the assault on Foy, Easy Company was more than just a little on edge. Everyone knew that eventually, a day would come where they would have to follow Lieutenant Dike into combat, and that day had finally arrived. 

The men and women of Easy were crouched along the treeline overlooking Foy, their eyes peeled on the buildings in the distance. Margot looked over to where Winters was explaining the plan to Dike, but of course, Dike looked like he was completely spaced out. Margot was already nervous, even though she would never admit it, and the blank expression on Dike's face gave her little to no comfort. 

"Hey," a hand rested on Margot's shoulder, causing her to jump a little. Turning around, Margot saw Babe knelt beside her. "You okay?" he asked, his hand giving her a little reassuring squeeze.

Margot turned to the machine gun she had set up and gave it a few pats. "I'm good," she answered, a forced smiled working its way across her mouth. "Cleaned this baby last night. She should be good to go."

Settling in next to his partner, Babe nodded and got ready for the 'go-ahead'. In more ways than one, he was thrilled he and Margot got to stay back and provide cover fire for the troops heading out. As much as he hated to say it, he didn't necessarily trust the woman in high-risk, high-stress situations yet. She was still way jumpier and spaced out than he would like.

"Suppressing fire!" Winters shouted as the signal.

Hunkering down, Margot drew in a deep breath and pulled the trigger of the M1 Browning, spraying the town with bullets. As soon as the machine guns started up, Lipton, along with Dike, Shames and Foley, lead the company out into the open field. 

Staying behind the majority of the pack, Annie kept her head low and knees slightly bent as she dashed towards the first large pile of hay for cover. It didn't take long for the Germans to realize they were under attack, which meant it didn't take long before Easy had artillery flying towards them. 

"Keep it coming," Margot muttered as she adjusted her aim to one of the larger buildings that Krauts kept going in and out of. "We got 'em now."

Annie, who was still managing to keep up with the pack rather well, had to quickly skid to a stop to avoid smashing into the man in front of her. Suddenly, Dike was standing in the middle of the field, his head whipping around like he had lost something. "Where the hell is 1st Platoon?" he panicked.

While the other platoons were further up ahead, actually following the plan and taking out as many Krauts and buildings as they could before the real artillery hit, 3rd platoon was standing around like a lost kid in a supermarket. 

While Dike yelled for everyone to hold up, Lipton, Foley, and Shames were directing their men closer and closer to the town. "Easy Company, hold up!" Dike crouched down in the open, waving his arms around like a goddamn target. 

Hearing the order, Lipton, Foley, and Shames stopped their men before looking back to see what the problem was. There was no problem. Well, actually, there  _was_  a problem. The problem was Dike. 

Annie, who was knelt down beside Luz, was starting to lose her cool. She had no real way to defend herself, she was sitting out in the open, and all the while, the Krauts were preparing to bring down hellfire on them. 

"What is with this goddamn company and wanting to run out into the open?" Annie grumbled under her breath. 

Turning to Luz, Dike gestured to the radio on his back. "Get me Foley on the radio."

While Dike sat around endangering his men, Winters shouted from his position back at the treeline for them to move and get out of the open. "Sir, I think we should take cover," Luz suggested in the nicest way possible. 

"I second that." Annie nodded as a bullet ricocheted off of the frozen ground a meter or so away from her.

Margot's finger let go of the trigger as she watched bullets pepper the ground around Annie, Luz, and Dike. All at once, the images of Bill and Joe flashed before her eyes. Her heart rate increased and her palms began to sweat despite the freezing temperatures. All of a sudden, she had an overwhelming feeling that she was going to lose Annie too. 

"They gotta get out of there..." she mumbled to herself as Babe turned to her, wondering why she had stopped firing.

As Luz obeyed his order and grabbed the radio receiver, a mortar landed right in front of them, splashing dirt into their faces as Dike finally decided to stand up and move to cover. Throwing themselves behind one of the many hay piles, Luz handed the receiver to Dike before checking to make sure Annie was okay. 

Thankfully, the blonde medic was fine. A little angry and confused, sure; but wounded? No. 

"Foley, you get back here where I can see you goddamnit!" Dike screamed into the radio before throwing the receiver to the ground in a state of total disorientation. 

The German firepower kept coming. Bullets flew through the air left and right and mortars left small craters in the snow all over the field where they had hit. Luz was annoyed, Annie was concerned, and Dike was on a whole new level of flustered that either trooper had yet to see.

Winters yelled for the men to move forward, Dike ordered the men to fall back, and as a whole, the company was scattered about, confused and slowly presenting themselves as more and more of a target. Eventually, the other leaders pulled their men back to link up with Dike, but the unplanned retreat ended up just killing more men in the long run. 

As Lipton rounded the hay pile and dropped down beside Dike, Annie could already tell he was fuming. His eyes were wide and his lips were pressed into a thin, tight line. "What are we doing Lieutenant?" he barked. "Why are we stopped?!"

Dike continued to order the men to fall back, and as more and more men huddled together for cover behind the hay, Luz was once again on the radio, that time with the officers back at the treeline. 

"They gotta get out of there!" Margot was shouting now, her voice ripping through her throat as she watched mortar after mortar go off, each one getting closer to taking out Annie, Luz, Dike, Lipton, and the many other men who were grouped together for cover. 

"Margot, you gotta pull yourself together," Babe instructed, not sure where the outburst came from but knowing that he had to make it stop as soon as possible. He couldn't let Winters or Sink see her freaking out like that. 

Margot continued to shout, her cries thankfully being mostly drowned out by the gunfire. Babe tried to shake her back into reality, he even tried slapping her on the helmet a few times, but in a matter of seconds she had completely checked out, her entire being in a state of fear and shock. She was gone. 

Doing the only thing he could think of, Babe physically shoved Margot out of the way and took over as the main gunner. Pulling the trigger, he fired at the buildings, the sound of the gun masking the guttural pleas of Margot as she sat, wide-eyed and frantic, watching the platoons get picked off one by one.

Back in the field, Annie, along with the men, were still trying to get Dike to calm down and come up with a plan. Lipton was shouting at the Lieutenant to do his job while Luz kept thrusting the radio receiver in his face, telling him that he needed to talk to Winters. 

Eventually, the shouting and demands got to him and Dike seemed to snap out of his trance. "Okay, okay. Foley, you take your men on a flanking mission around the village and attack it from the rear!" he somehow managed to come up with the worst plan in the shortest amount of time, and at that moment, it was made abundantly clear that he was quite literally flying by the seat of his pants. 

Dike was very obviously just saying whatever came to his head and hoping it would work out. 

"You want 1st Platoon to go around and attack the village by itself?" Foley snapped. He simply could not believe the ludicrous orders that he was being given. 

Dike nodded, his eyes flickering around nervously. "We will provide suppressing fire."

"We're gonna be kind of alone out there, Lieutenant."

"We will provide suppressing fire!" Dike repeated, spit dripping from his lips as the words came flying forcefully out of his mouth. 

With a grunt, Foley stood up and started to head back to his platoon, the man with him getting shot down after only taking three or four steps out from behind the cover. 

The problems Dike was faced with were far from over, however. Winters was still on the radio, yelling at Luz that he needed to talk to Dike. "You need to talk to Captain Winters, sir," Luz begged, but Dike, much like Margot, had completely lost it. 

Winters watched in horror as Foley sent his men out around the village, two of them being shot down within seconds. It was nothing less than a bloodbath and there was nothing he could do to stop it. His men were dying and all he could do was watch.

Annie could hear the shouts of the men being hit, even at one point swearing she heard Perconte, but her hands were tied. There was no way she would be able to get out to all of the men without being shot herself, and she wasn't about to rely on the good graces of the Geneva Convention to protect her. 

When the report came in from Foley that he had already lost five men, Annie could feel her blood beginning to boil. If Dike had just stuck to the original plan, none of this would have happened, and a lot of good men would still be alive. 

The German sniper was located in a building with a caved-in roof, and before long all fire was concentrated there. Once the sniper had been located, Lipton turned his attention back to the underlying problem. "Sir, we are sitting ducks here!" he got right into Dike's face. "We have to keep moving!"

Dike just blinked back in response. There was nothing left of him. He was just an empty uniform. 

Annie had pretty much given up all hope at that point, but just when it seemed like things could only go even further downhill, Lieutenant Speirs came rushing through the smoke of a recently exploded mortar. The sight of him running through the field, determination on his face and confidence in every step he took, made Annie feel like she was watching her guardian angel. 

Dropping to his knees in front of Dike, Speirs took the dazed Lieutenant by the jacket and stared him down. "I'm taking over," he informed him before turning around. "1st Sergeant Lipton. What have we got?"

"Sir, most of the company is spread out here." Lipton gave Speirs the rundown. "1st Platoon tried to end around but they're stretched out, they're pinned down by a sniper. I believe he's in the building with the caved-in roof."

Speirs nodded. "Alright, I want mortars and grenade launchers on that building 'till it's gone. When it's gone, I want 1st to go straight in, forget going around. Everybody else, follow me."

With that, Speirs stood up and took off running, not wasting a single second. Annie felt relief wash through her like a tidal wave. "Oh, thank God." she sighed, Lipton and Luz doing the same. "Finally, a competent leader."

As soon as Speirs was in the game, Easy Company was right back on track. All three platoons were moving forward again and everyone was on the same page. "Alright, you heard the word, 2nd Platoon, on the CO!" Lipton repeated the information for everyone to hear before directing the mortarmen to take out the building with the sniper. 

Just like that, Easy Company was inside Foy as if the little hiccup had never happened; but it had, and good soldiers were dead because of it. 

When Lipton bolted out into the open, Annie followed behind him with ease, not a single bone in her body telling her that it was the wrong thing to do. With Lipton and Speirs in charge, the medic didn't doubt for a second that the company was in good hands.

The Germans continued to fire their heavy artillery but as more and more Easy Company men made it into the village, they began to pull back. Annie could feel the ground trembling beneath her feet as explosions went off behind her, but she kept her eyes trained on the white stripe on the back of Lipton's helmet and continued to put one foot in front of the other. 

Pushing her back hard against the wall of a building for cover, Annie squeezed herself in between Speirs and Luz. As Lipton poked his head around the corner to get a look, a bullet grazed his cheek, sending his head whipping back to safety. 

"You okay?" Annie asked, her hands already digging around her bag.

Lipton waved the girl off as he moved to take another look. "What do you see, Lipton?" Speirs asked.

"Armour and infantry," Lipton answered, his hand still cupping his cheek. "A lot of infantry."

"I Company's supposed to be on the other side of the town," Speirs shouted over the sound of gunfire. "Do you see any sign of them?"

Lipton took another peek and shook his head. "No, sir." he held his rifle tight against his chest. "Sir, I think they're gonna pull back. If we don't connect with I, they're gonna slip away."

"That's right." Speirs nodded. "Wait here."

With a pat on the shoulder, Speirs darted out from behind the wall and started running through the town. Annie, Luz, and Lipton watched in amazement as he sprinted right through the German infantry, the white-clad soldiers watching him pass them by; too shocked to even fire at him. 

Speirs ran past Krauts, machine guns, and even tanks before hopping over the wall on the other side of town. The really astounding thing was, however, after he hooked up with I Company, he ran back. 

Watching Speirs run through German firepower was without a doubt the most unbelievable thing Annie had seen since dropping into Normandy. The way he kept his head straight and eyes focused ahead of him on his destination was something that few men possessed and even fewer made look easy. 

When the town of Foy had finally been taken, the entire company moved in to ransack what they could and spend some time resting in something other than a foxhole. Most of the troopers were busy corralling the POWs while the others posed in front of the video camera, singing their hearts out while atop a German tank. When the shooting and explosions had finally stopped, Margot had managed to calm down. She had stopped screaming and had gone into what Babe could only describe as a mild catatonic state. 

She had gone from making as much noise as possible to being completely silent. The redheaded machine-gunner packed up his things, grabbed Margot by the hand, and slowly lead his partner into the town to rest a little. 

Margot didn't fully register where she was until Annie was standing right in front of her, waving her hand in her face. When she saw her blonde friend, she pulled her in for a hug so tight that Annie was almost positive she felt a few joints in her back pop. 

"Hey, I'm okay." Annie wrapped her arms around her friend, her eyes meeting with Babe's. They were both worried about the raven-haired woman, and at that point, Annie wasn't even sure if she could keep it a secret anymore. She wasn't sure if she should.

As Annie pulled out of the hug, a familiar sound rang out. Screams echoed and men dove for cover. Somewhere, somehow, there was still a sniper. Grabbing Margot by the jacket, the blonde girl pushed her towards cover, not trusting her to move quick enough on her own. "Go!" Annie shouted. "Take co-"

Annie's sentence was cut off as a bullet pinged her helmet, sending her falling back onto the dirt. The medic's head hit the ground hard as she fell and her helmet tumbled off, landing a few meters away. Her breathing was uncontrollable and her eyes shot open, scanning the clouds in the sky above. First the dud mortar, now this? Her luck was severely running out. Or maybe, it was getting better. She couldn't tell, and at that moment, she didn't quite care. 

She could still hear the occasional gunshot go off, so she waited there, frozen in place until the sound of cheering told her that it was safe to move again. As she slowly sat up, she let out a loud moan. Babe ran to her side, along with Luz and Margot, and immediately she was being babied.

"Please stop looking at me like that." Annie groaned as she rose to her feet again, picking up her helmet in the process and taking note of the dented spot where the bullet had hit. 

Margot placed her hand on Annie's head, looking for any sign of bleeding. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Does your head hurt?"

"Of course my head hurts." Annie rubbed the back of her skull. "Did you not just see it bounce off of the ground like a rubber ball? But the bullet only hit my helmet, so I need you guys to stop looking at me like there's a hole clean through me."

Placing her helmet back onto her head, Annie marched off to assess the damage the sniper had done; the real damage. In total, the German marksman had killed four men, Mellet, Herron, Sowosko, and Webb. Oh, Webb, the sweet young kid who had made the mistake of mentioning Hoobler back in the forest. Sure, he had been a little inexperienced and ignorant, but did he deserve to die because of it? No. None of the men that died that day had deserved it. 

The injuries were plentiful, among them being Perconte, who had been shot in the ass in true Easy Company fashion. He was taking it like a real trooper though, and after Bull piggy-backed him to the aid station, he didn't complain about the pain even once. 

After looking down at the town of Foy for the better part of a month, it was definitely a great relief to the men and women of Easy Company to have finally taken it. Many expected that the Regiment would take the company off of the line for a little while, but they didn't. Two days later Easy Company took Noville, and after that, Rachamps. 

●●● 

Sitting with her one knee tucked up into her chest and the other leg hanging over the pew she was sitting on, Annie closed her eyes, allowing herself to relax as she listened to the choir of young women sing. 

For the first time in a month, the company was spending the night indoors, their host for the night being a convent in Rachamps where the sisters took care of their every need. The room they were staying in was filled with candles, the bright flames flickering, almost in tune with the music if one looked hard enough. 

The stress that the past few months had had on the company had disappeared as soon as they caught wind of their transfer to Mourmelon for a little while. Finally, they were being taken off of the lines. Annie remembered how angry everyone had been when they had been taken off the lines following Carentan; how everybody had wanted to stay and fight. The reaction this time was vastly different. No one wanted to stay any longer than they had to. 

Of course, no one knew that in the morning they would be told that Mourmelon would have to wait. Hitler had launched a counter-offensive in Alsace, so Easy was heading to the town of Hagenau to help hold the line. But for the night, however, the company was none the wiser. 

That night, they enjoyed the thought of spending some time off in France; even if it would only ever be a thought.

While Eugene sat beside Perconte, making sure he was still doing okay after his shot to the butt, Annie sat across from them next to Liebgott. The Jewish man was quiet, like usual, but this time he wasn't the only one. Besides the choir, not one person was making a single sound. No one had anything to say. No one wanted to say anything. 

Resting her hand on Liebgott's knee, she gave him a sweet smile before turning around to check on Lipton. Like always, the 1st Sergeant was working. Annie wasn't positive about what he was doing, but by what she could see over his shoulder, it looked like he was scribbling down the names of who was left. 

The company had entered Belgium with 123 men and officers, plus 24 replacements; 147 total. In the end, there were 63 left. Bill Guarnere had been badly wounded, Donald Hoobler had died accidentally, and Joe Toye had lost his leg. Included in the dead were Mullen, Herron, Sowosko, Keneth Webb, Harold Webb, Alex Penkala, and Skip Muck. Buck Compton had been taken off the lines, and with him, Norman Dike. 

For the most part, it seemed the only good things to come out of Belgium was Ronald Speirs, who had been made company CO in Dike's place, and Lipton's Battlefield Commission, which would make him a Lieutenant.

Annie was happy about those two things. After what she had seen in combat that day, she knew she would follow either of those men into a hundred battles without so much as a blink of the eye. Ronald Speirs and Carwood Lipton were good men, and it was about time the officers at Battalion figured that out.

As Speirs walked down the middle aisle between the pews, he stopped in front of Annie and smiled. The blonde medic had never had much interaction with the former Lieutenant of Dog Company, but she could see that behind all the rumors surrounding him, he was just like everyone else; with maybe just that little extra bit of crazy that persuaded him to run two lengths of a German-occupied town.

"How are the men doing, Sergeant?" he asked. 

Annie looked around the convent before giving a small nod. "For the most part, sir, the men are good. Perconte's ass is healing up quite well and everyone seems to be relaxed...even Margot Kessler." she pointed over to where Margot was sitting in between Malarkey and Babe, a soft smile on her lips and a look of what could possibly pass for happiness on her face. 

When Annie had finished given her simple verbal report, Speirs just stared down at her, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. Annie cocked a brow, confused as to why he wasn't saying anything. On her left, Liegbott was smiling too, and on her right, Luz was the same. "Sir, what is going on?" she let out a nervous chuckle.

"I'm not sure you heard me correctly," Speirs stated. "I asked you, how are the men doing,  _Sergeant_?"

"And I said they were-" Annie started before she took the time to analyze the full sentence. Her eyes widened and she shifted slightly. "Sir, did you just...call me..."

Speirs rolled his eyes dramatically when the female medic finally caught on. "As company CO, I requested one of my first duties be to inform you of your promotion, Sergeant Winslow. Battalion wants to make it clear that all your hard work does not go unnoticed. Congratulations on making T-4."

As Speirs strolled off, Annie found that she couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. "Hey, look at you!" Luz shook Annie playfully. "Guess pulling bullets out of butts does, in fact, pay off!"

"I guess so." Annie made eye contact with Margot from across the way, the machine-gunner having overheard the conversation, like many of the other men, and giving her silent congratulations. 

Annie had never expected to be promoted, but in a way, that made the fact that she had even better. 

●●● 

As the company rolled out again the next morning, Annie was much too tired to pay attention to this or that. Instead, she was looking forward to the nap she was hoping to catch while they rode in the back of the trucks all the way to Hagenau. 

No one had been impressed when they heard the news of postponing Mourmelon, but to be honest, no one was surprised either. 

As Annie rested her head on Luz's shoulder, her body bouncing up and down as the truck hit pothole after pothole, she faintly heard one of the soldiers from 1st Battalion shout something she was sure she would never forget.

"There they go, Easy Company riding out again."

Annie wasn't sure why the little comment stuck with her so much, but it probably had something to do with the truth it held. For as long as Annie had been in the war, she could barely remember a time where Easy wasn't on the line or about to be shipped out to the line once again.

 _Yes,_  Annie thought as the town of Rachamps got smaller and smaller in the distance,  _here we go again._


	41. Welcome Back

On February 9th, 1945, Easy Company arrived in Haguenau, France. This was the alternate destination to what would have been a very welcomed stay in Mourmelon. Comparatively, Hagenau was a paradise when pitted against Bastogne, but it still wasn't the ideal location considering everyone had been looking forward to England.

Nevertheless, besides the snow and remaining cold weather, there were real buildings to stay in and hot food to eat, and everyone was grateful for that.

As the trucks rolled slowly down the street, one by one unloading troops into the middle of the small French town, Annie sat with her elbows resting on her knees, her torso bumping into Luz every once in a while when the vehicle suddenly stopped or started again. 

The blonde medic was cold, tired, and hungry, which was nothing new; however, the thought of obtaining her needs as soon as she got off the damn truck was making every agonizing second that much worse. Annie didn't know how hungry she was until the thought of having a hot meal crossed her mind, and from what she could tell, the men were the same way.

Everyone was on edge and there just wasn't really anything that could be done about it. 

"George Luz!" a slightly familiar voice called. 

With her head resting in her palm, Annie looked over at a man who was slowly approaching the truck. That's how slow they were moving; a sauntering man could easily catch up. Annie recognized the Paratrooper as David Webster, the Toccoa man she had treated for a leg wound back in Holland. 

Holland...it seemed like such a distant memory even though it was only a few months ago. Crazy how time can seem so altered depending on what happens and who it's happening to. 

Luz looked down at the man, clearly not recognizing him at first. "Yeah?"

"It's me." Webster proclaimed with a smile on his face, clearly more excited than every other member of Easy combined. "Oh, come on. I haven't been gone that long."

Luz scoffed, a cloud of smoke passing through his dry, cracked lips. "Jesus, yes you have."

Annie watched as Webster walked one more truck up and threw his bag into the back. The troopers there gave him the same unimpressed greeting as Luz had. Martin and Bull looked especially annoyed by the chipper, clean shaven, well-fed, rested man. As the engines quieted down for a second, possibly at the worst time, Annie heard the naive returnee ask where Hoobler was.

The question made her breathing hitch for a millisecond, but other than that, she didn't react much. She'd been given time to process the deaths from Bastogne and Foy and had managed to tuck them away until she was in the right state of mind to fully deconstruct her feelings about the men she had watched die.

With that, Foley ordered Webster to report to 2nd Platoon, so Webster grabbed his bag and moved another truck up to where Margot was sitting with pretty much all that was left of 2nd. Plastering another smile on his face, determined to get a warm welcome out of the third vehicle, Webster adjusted his duffle bag on his shoulder and looked up at the men and woman.

"Hey, guys." he cheesed, the way he spoke already pissing off half of the men. "Some Lieutenant told me to report to 2nd."

Margot pulled the cigarette out of her mouth and rested her arms along the bench of the seat, one arm behind Liebgott and the other behind Babe. "Who the hell are you?" she quirked an eyebrow at the man. He looked familiar, but she wasn't sure from where.

Jackson and Grant, who were sat on the opposite bench, gave the newcomer a glare. Even Malarkey, who usually tried to be as positive as possible, couldn't even be bothered to turn his head as he stood just behind the cab of the truck, staring out somewhere far, far away.

Webster's face fell at the comment. "I'm Webster," he answered, hoping to jog the woman's memory. "David Webster. I trained with you at Toccoa."

"Did you?" Margot drew her arm from behind Liebgott and took another puff of her smoke. "Coulda fooled me."

Deciding he might have better luck with the younger replacement, Webster turned to Jackson. "Your name's Jackson, right?"

Jackson's eyes scanned Webster up and down, his lips pressed into a straight line. "That's right." he huffed.

Webster nodded as he looked around at the troopers in front of him, his confidence severely dwindling by the second. It was obvious he wasn't really wanted, but he was on a mission, and he wasn't going to give up just yet. "Who's leading the platoon?" he inquired, hoping that a more simple, straightforward question would be returned with less hostility.

Jackson looked across from himself with a broad, lazy sweeping gesture of his arm. "Sergeants Malarkey and Kessler are."

Margot snickered slightly at the surprised look on Webster's face. She and Malarkey had been just as shocked when Winters told them that he wanted to give them both a shot at running the platoon. Margot was sure it was only because there was quite literally no one left, considering both she and Malarkey had been on the brink of mental breakdowns not weeks earlier, but nevertheless, the two Sergeants took on the job and actually worked quite well together. 

Winters saw the benefits of teamwork as well, which was why he decided two leaders, in this rare case, might be better than one. He feared that having all of the pressure on just one of them would be too much to take on. In the end, it was an odd choice but seemed to work out for the better. 

Having such an important role didn't give Margot or Malarkey much time to wallow in their own self-pity, which eventually, they came to appreciate. 

"What, no officers?" Webster almost laughed, sure it was a joke. 

Margot threw her cigarette to the floor of the truck bed and stomped it out. "No officers," she confirmed. 

With a shrug, Webster tossed his bag at Jackson's feet before climbing up. As the truck jolted again, he almost tumbled right out the back and onto the dirt but managed to catch himself. Shame; it would have been a funny sight.

"So, uh..." Jackson scooted over on the bench to make room for Webster. "You come from the hospital?"

"Yeah."

Margot could feel the sarcastic comment building up in Liebgott before he even made a sound. "Must've liked that hospital," he commented, earning an agreeing nod from Babe, who also wasn't looking too pleased. "'Cause, uh, we left Holland four months ago."

Webster scoffed slightly. "Well, I wasn't there the whole time. There was rehabilitation, then the replacement depot."

"Rehabilitation." Babe almost laughed. "I saw the wound on your leg. Wasn't no rehabilitation needed. Have you seen some of the wounds these men have gotten? Think they got rehabilitation? Think Margot got rehabilitation for that massive gash on her side?"

Webster was growing more uncomfortable with every word spoken. "Ugh, well..."

"Well, I'm sure you tried to bust out and help us in Bastogne, Web." Liebgott pressed further, enjoying the way his taunts made Webster squirm in his seat.

"I don't know how I would have done that."

"You should ask Popeye. He did it." Margot folded her arms over her chest and slumped down in her seat to give part of her butt a rest from the hard wooden bench. "So did Alley. And Toye."

Liebgott nodded along to Margot's list of men. "And Guarnere."

"Yeah, where is Guarnere?" Webster looked around at the surrounding trucks attempting to locate the Philadelphian. "He still your Platoon Sergeant?" 

As the truck finally rolled to a complete stop, Malarkey ordered the troops to hop out of the truck and get going. Staring Webster dead in the eyes, Margot gritted her teeth together. "Bill got his leg blown off. Same as Toye," she grumbled, standing to her feet in the process. "Got any more dumb questions you wanna ask? 'Cause you better get 'em out of the way now."

Once on solid ground again, Margot and Malarkey ordered their platoon to spread out and hold along the sideline until they could figure out where they were going. One of the many disadvantages to leading a platoon when you had no real qualifications was that no one ever told you anything. 

It was like getting a 13-year-old to babysit a 12-year-old; technically it worked, but it didn't make much sense. 

As Margot and Malarkey began to wander over to where Battalion was set up, the familiar sound of a mortar flying overhead caught their attention. Throwing their hands over their heads out of habit, the two Sergeants stepped to the side slightly as the explosive went off blocks away. Nothing to worry about.

Webster, on the other hand, threw himself down onto the ground in the most dramatic way anyone had seen in a long time. Margot let out a snort of amusement as she watched the private stand back up again, his hands dusting off his pants as a glint of embarrassment flashed in his eyes. 

Malarkey gave the raven-haired machine-gunner a nudge with his elbow as he chuckled. "What's the matter there, Webster?" he eyed the nervous looking man. "Nervous in the service?"

"Oh, no. No, I'm fine Sarge." Webster hoisted his bag back onto his shoulder again. 

Margot shook her head as she caught Speirs entering Battalion Headquarters out of the corner of her eye. "Why don't you go talk to Captain Speirs?" she pawned the frustratingly ignorant private off on the company leader. "Make sure he wants you with us."

"Captain Speirs?" Webster furrowed his brows. "What happened to Captain Winters?"

"He's running the whole Battalion now," Malarkey informed him before shooing him away. 

With Webster out of the way, the two Sergeants continued down the road to try and locate a building to set up in. "He has been gone a while." Margot sighed as she took a large step over a puddle. "I didn't even remember him. Must've been a quiet one."

"Mmm." Malarkey agreed with a hum.

In Battalion Headquarters, Annie was dealing with her own little problem that just didn't seem to go away. Lipton had come down with pneumonia, and no matter how many different remedies she tried, traditional or homemade, he just didn't seem to get any better. Thankfully, he wasn't getting much worse, but he certainly wasn't getting better.

Placing the back of her hand to Lipton's forehead, the small medic sighed when his skin still came back hot to the touch. "Sir, you're killing me here." she smiled sweetly as she sat back on her haunches next to the couch Lipton had settled himself on. 

"I'm sorry Annie." Lipton let out a hoarse cough. "I know I'm not being a good patient."

Annie waved her hand at the soon-to-be Lieutenant. "Oh, hush now. It's not you, it's your damn pneumonia. It just won't budge and I'm getting worried about this fever."

Hearing a set of footsteps behind her, Annie turned to see Webster as he slowly made his way through the threshold, clearly unsure if he was in the right place or not. Luz greeted the man, much nicer than he had the first time, before walking over with a pile of paperwork and a blanket.

"You're a sweetheart." Annie thanked Luz for the blanket before gently covering Lipton with it. 

Webster eyed Lipton. "Feeling alright?" he asked.

"Pneumonia," Annie replied first in order to spare Lipton from speaking any more than he already had to. Even though he wouldn't admit it, she could tell from his scratchy voice and constant coughing that his throat was sore and swollen.

Webster's face flushed with compassion. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"What are you sorry about?" the cigarette in the corner of Luz's mouth bounced up and down and he spoke. "He's alive, he's got a couch, a goddamn blanket, snug as a bug."

"Ugh, Sergeants Malarkey and Kessler said to check with the CO if I should be in 2nd Platoon." Webster finally spit out the reason for his visit.

Lipton gestured to one of the chairs with the papers in his hand. "Have a seat, Webster, we'll get you situated."

Noticing the sweat forming on Lipton's head, Annie inspected him closer, only to find that he was still shivering, which was why she had requested Luz to find a blanket in the first place. Annie wanted to ask Lipton to try and get some sleep, knowing that he wouldn't do much healing when he kept pushing himself so hard, but the kind Sergeant was also stubborn. If there was work to be done, then by God he was going to do it, sick or not.

"Is this the company CP for easy?" a new voice entered the room.

Lipton sat up a little, trying to look more presentable in front of the new face. The man at the door looked, well, like he had just  _barely_  become a man. He was the definition of 'babyface' if ever Annie had seen one. 

"Lieutenant Jones looking for Captain Speirs," he announced himself.

Annie almost couldn't believe it.  _That_  young boy was a Lieutenant? Wow, the war must really be getting desperate. 

"He's on his way, Sir." Lipton yet again gestured to the chairs. "Why don't you sit down?"

As the Lieutenant stepped into the room and made his way over to take a seat, Lipton looked to one of the orderlies. "Can you get me a coffee?"

As the man stood up to retrieve the hot drink, Annie grabbed him by the arm. "Water will do the Sergeant just fine." she changed the order before sending him away. "You don't need anything that's going to keep you from sleeping." she gave Lipton a disapproving glare. "If you won't sleep on your own, I'm just going to sit here and deny you coffee until your body takes over and makes you sleep." 

"But-"

"Sir, respectfully, I'm not backing down on this one."

"You should listen to her!" Luz's head popped around the doorway from the other room. "She's usually right about these things and it just saves a lot of headaches in the long run. Trust me."

Annie made a big gesture towards the helpful radioman, indicating that her stubborn patient should listen to him. When Speirs finally arrived, he too told Lipton to go into the back and lie down for a while. 

"Three against one." Annie sing-songed as she threw open the door to the back room where the beds were. "Come on. Sleepytime for Sergeant Carwood Lipton."

Lipton just laughed at the girl, still not moving a muscle. Seconds later Winters and Nixon walked in and announced that Regiment wanted a patrol across the river for prisoners that night. Winters didn't say much except that the target building was a three-story home and that Speirs could have fifteen men. 

The patrol would need a lead scout and a translator, while the entire Battalion would provide covering fire. 

As Winters went off to speak with Speirs and Nixon moved to check out the new Lieutenant, Annie hurried away to see what was taking so long with the water for Lipton. The medic shook her head slightly as she disappeared around the corner. What she didn't need at the moment was a hail-mary patrol mission that accomplished nothing more than lying more dying men in her hands; both American and German. 


	42. Scrubbing Down

The mortars outside peppered the streets of Hagenau, going off one by one, usually missing any real target altogether and serving more as a reminder that somewhere close by, there were still Germans lurking about. Margot watched through the window she was standing in front of as concrete exploded into the air and large chunks scattered throughout the street, causing a few men to scurry and duck for cover. 

At that point, the sound and sight of a mortar was about as natural to the black-haired woman as waking up to the sound of birds chirping would be for any normal person. No longer did the high-pitched squeal give her a rush of anxiety or a spike in her blood pressure. When the familiar sound reached her ears, she would throw her hands over her head and calmly watch the sky until the chaos was over. 

"Hey, guys," a voice greeted the room as two pairs of footsteps could be heard on the worn-down wooden flooring. 

Turning away from the window, Margot gave Webster a slight nod before turning her attention to the man behind him. She tried to place him for a few seconds, but unlike the stunt she had pulled with Webster, this time she was  _sure_  she had never met the guy. He looked young, really young, but otherwise unphased by the condition of the men around him as if he had been in combat for years, just like the rest of Easy Company.

As Webster tossed his duffle bag up onto the bunk above Liebgott, Margot wandered over to the table in the middle of the room where Malarkey was pouring himself a coffee. Taking note of his co-Platoon Sergeant, the redheaded mortarman carefully handed the steaming mug to her with a small smile. 

"Thank you." Margot took the drink with both hands, relishing the warmth that spread to her cold, calloused palms before taking a sip and enjoying the feeling it brought her; the feeling of knowing she was truly alive. 

Malarkey then poured himself a cup of the hot caffeine and cheersed his mug against Margot's before taking his own first sip. His reaction was much of the same; eyes closed and a flash of relief over his pale face.

"Sergeants, this is Lieutenant Jones. Just assigned to 2nd Platoon." Webster introduced the young-faced man, thoroughly interrupting the wonderful moment the platoon leaders were having with their first cups of coffee in days. 

"Malarkey." Malarkey introduced himself before gesturing to Margot. He knew by the look on her face that she wasn't in the mood for making any new friends at the moment, even if the possible candidate was a Lieutenant. "This is Kessler. We're the Platoon Sergeants." 

In a swift motion, Lieutenant Jones switched his gear to his left arm before extending his right hand out toward Malarkey. "Congratulations on the battlefield commission."

Margot heard Liebgott snicker from where he was standing with the rest of the men and immediately knew that the Jewish cab driver had started spreading some sort of weird rumor to mess with the new guys. Looking over her shoulder, she gave the prankster a sly smirk of approval. "Wow, you've been holding out on me, haven't you, Malark?" she gently smacked Malarkey's arm with the back of her hand.

Malarkey stared down at the Lieutenant's hand, confusion and exhaustion painted on his face. "The what?" he accepted the gesture awkwardly. 

Liebgott let out another snort of amusement, this time catching Webster's attention. "They're making you an officer, no?" Jones inquired.

"Me, no." Malarkey cleared up the confusion as Webster caught onto the joke and rolled his eyes. "You must be thinking of 1st Sergeant Lipton."

Jones looked to Webster, who he had obviously gotten the wrong information from, before swinging his rifle down from his shoulder and setting it on the table along with his bag. "So, you're without a platoon leader?"

"No, not anymore Lieutenant." Malarkey reminded the man of why he was there in the first place; to take over as leader of the platoon. Margot was somewhat grateful for this because as much as she enjoyed running things for a little while, she missed being able to sneak off and spend some time alone without worrying if someone was looking for her. 

Jones nodded slowly as the realization hit him. "Right."

The comparison between Jones and Malarkey was shocking, and at first glance, you wouldn't be able to tell that the two men were fighting in the same platoon, in the same war. Jones had a baby face, no stubble at all, wide eyes, a clean uniform, and freshly showered hair. Malarkey, on the other hand, was quite clearly a grown man. His ginger stubble had grown out to a small beard, his eyes were dark and full of exhaustion — both mental and physical —, his uniform was a dark brown from all the mud that had been caked on, and his dirty, unkempt, sweaty hair was tucked underneath a toque that just barely covered the tips of his ears. 

Jones' eyes trailed past Malarkey and Margot and settled on the small group of troopers that were gathered close to each other, enjoying their own cups of coffee and sharing a conversation. "So, do you wanna introduce me to the men?"

Margot chuckled a little. She sure as hell didn't feel like playing matchmaker with the boys, and she was sure Malarkey didn't either. 

Letting out a loud exhale, Malarkey turned to the platoon members that were in the room. "Well, some are sleeping downstairs, and the rest are right here."

"Couldn't have done it better myself." Margot took another sip of her drink as Jones gave a nod towards Liegbott, Grant, Babe, McClung, and Ramirez. 

Leaning in closer towards Margot and Malarkey, Jones lowered his voice a little. "Sergeants, a patrol's being planned for tonight, 0100 hours, across the river. Regiment wants POWs for interrogation."

As the two Platoon Sergeants and the Lieutenant stepped to the side toward the window to discuss details further, Margot watched out of the corner of her eye as Liebgott and the other men corner Webster by the bunk beds, no doubt trying to pry information out of him about the patrol.

Margot hated leaving her men in the dark, but there wasn't much she could do until she knew everything for herself first. 

Turning her attention back to the discussion, Margot listened as Malarkey listed off the sort of firepower that they had, and then what the Germans had. Once his little spiel was done, he pulled out a cigarette and plopped it between his lips. Following his lead, Margot did the same, silently thanking her friend as he used his lighter to light her smoke as well. 

"So, I take it this was already an outpost when you arrived?" Jones asked, his hands clasped in front of his body. He was standing up so straight that Margot's spine ached just looking at him.

Malarkey inhaled the nicotine, let it sit in his lungs for a few seconds, and exhaled before answering. "There were some dogies from the 79th infantry, but they left in a hurry."

"What's the report on enemy activity?"

"Expect some flares. Scattered 88s, snipers during the day, few mortars during the night," Margot leaned against the window frame. "Few mortars during the day," she added, remembering the display she had witnessed not ten minutes earlier.

"Yeah, we dodged some mortars on our way in." Jones turned and gestured toward Webster, who was still surrounded by the others like he held the secret to the universe or some garbage like that.

Malarkey didn't even feign being worried or impressed. "Mmm." he hummed before looking through the fogged up, dirty window. "They also got some sort of railroad gun back there. Shells about the size of a deuce and a half. Sounds like a freight train when one comes over."

Jones eyed the small, Kraut-occupied village on the other side of the body of water. "But they haven't made any attempts to cross the river?"

"No." Malarkey took another drag of his cigarette, the grey smoke spilling out of his mouth seconds later. "They have roofs over their head, sir, just like us. I don't think anybody wants to do anything stupid at this point, right?"   

After that, Jones jumped right into explaining the details of the patrol for that evening and listing off the men from 2nd that Speirs wanted. Margot rubbed her eyes with her free hand, groaning at the thought of sending her already over-worked Paratroopers on a mission across the river in the middle of the night. 

Jones offered to break the news, but Margot beat him to it. "Alright, boys. Listen up." she turned to her friends and folded her arms over her chest. "First of all, Liebgott, stop bullying Webster." she decided to lighten the mood first, which earned a few dry chuckles. "Next, I have some bad news, which I knew is everyone's favourite kind of news. There is a patrol set for tonight and so far Speirs wants Heffron, McClung, and Ramirez."

"We know." McClung huffed.

Babe grumbled as he ran his fingers through his red hair. "Yeah, we just fucking heard. Webster here told us."

Webster's face went blank as his fellow troopers sold him out without even so much as a 'please' and 'thank you'. 

Hearing the phone ring from beside himself, Malarkey picked up the call and spoke a few simple words before hanging up again. "The PX rations just came in," he announced as he wound the radio up a few times. "Including, winter shoe packs."

"Beautiful," McClung smirked.

"Yeah, finally, right?" he agreed. 

Liebgott rested his arm on one of the top bunks and sighed. "Good of 'em, now we're in a nice warm house."

"Also, we got showers."

"Hallelujah!" Margot cheered. She couldn't remember the last time she had had a proper shower, so as sad as it might seem, the fact that she got to scrub the dirt off of her body was looking like it might be the highlight of her day.

Before anything else could be said, the all-to-familiar sound of mortars approaching overhead sounded through the town. Jumping into action, with Jones and Webster panicked and following their lead, 2nd platoon darted out of the room and descended the stairs to the basement with such speed and urgency that many of the men ended up falling on their stomachs at the bottom.

Dust and bits of the house fell from the old ceiling as the last of the explosions went off, and from where they were lying on the floor, the men started laughing their asses off. Margot wasn't exactly sure what was so funny, but the slight delirium from no sleep and not enough food, paired with the joy on her friends' faces, had her cracking up in no time. 

"You are a bunch of messed-up motherfuckers." Margot wheezed as she slowly pushed herself to a sitting position. 

Babe offered her a hand up, a wide grin on his face. "Takes one to know one."

"You are very right about that." Margot didn't even deny it. 

Once the excitement was over, the group headed out to take their showers. Margot was a little worried about whether there would be a single stall set up for her and Annie or not, but in all honesty, she really didn't care at that point. One way or another, she was going to shower off the weeks of dirt that had built up on her skin like another layer of clothing. 

As Margot stepped out onto the street, she heard a final explosion, followed by someone calling for a medic. Rushing toward the commotion, the machine-gunner found a small gathering of men around Sergeant Kiehn, who had been hit by the mortar attack. 

Eugene and Annie were crouched beside the man, but by the looks on their faces — looks that she had seen way too many times before — she knew there was nothing they could do. 

Christenson knelt down beside the man who he had deemed a friend, his face void of expression and his hands shaking by his sides. Margot felt a tinge of sadness in her chest, mostly because Bill Kiehn had been a Toccoa man, and not because she had really known him or anything. 

It sucked losing a member of the original group, but Margot had learned to have selective sympathy. If she cried and grieved over every lost man, she would lose her mind in a matter of days. After what she went through when she lost Guarnere and Toye, Margot chose not to let death affect her in such a way anymore. It sounded naive, and it probably was, but for the time being, it helped.

With a comforting pat on Christenson's shoulder, Margot took one last look at the body sprawled out in the middle of the street before turning and walking off with the other men who — as cruel and desensitized as it sounded — had lost interest. 

Arriving at the shower tent, Margot wasn't the least bit surprised to see many of the men in nothing but their underwear. She had seen it before, many times, so it didn't bother her; and even if she hadn't seen it before, the raven-haired woman was sure she was much too fatigued to care.

There were even a few men who decided that stripping all the way down to their birthday suit was necessary, and as much as Margot wished she could avoid seeing the genitalia of men she had to work with on a daily basis, she just went with it and pretended as if it wasn't even happening.

As Margot walked around, trying to find someone to ask about a private shower, Lipton located her in the crowd and pulled her aside along with Malarkey. Like usual, he didn't come bearing good news. Speirs had also chosen Jackson, Liebgott, Shifty, Popeye, and Webster for the night patrol, with her and Malarkey leading, which was just great.

When Margot and Malarkey gathered up 2nd Platoon to break the news, the men were disappointed, but not surprised. Liebgott made his usual remarks, this time about how they pretty much plucked everyone from 2nd, and although Margot couldn't disagree, she encouraged the men to try and just take it all in stride.

Usually, her forced optimistic encouragements fell on deaf ears, but Margot still prided herself in at least trying to be as chipper and upbeat as Annie when she could muster it. Everyone always listened to the small, sweet medic when she gave advice. Margot, not so much, but she was okay with that. She was looked to for orders instead, which in her own way, was like giving advice. 

Wandering back over to the shower tent, Margot tracked down one of the higher-ups and asked about a separate shower for the females, but his only reply was that until then, he hadn't even known there were any females in the Paratroopers. 

Rolling her eyes, Margot angrily positioned herself in the regular shower line and waited her turn. A few of the guys started to eye her as she got closer and closer to the front, wondering if she was really going to strip down in front of all of them and shower.

The answer was yes. As much as Margot didn't want to, and as much as she knew that the men seeing her so undressed for the first time would cause a little bit of a situation, she had promised herself that one way or the other, she was going to shower; and by God if she had to jump into the frozen Karut river butt-naked to clean herself, then that was what she was going to do. 

As the man in front of her entered the shower tent and moved to stand under one of the many shower heads, Margot swallowed hard and slowly began to take her jacket off. She could feel the many pairs of eyes on her, but as she got closer and closer to standing under the warm water, she began to worry less and less.

After her jacket, she untied her boots and slipped them off along with her socks, then she took her pants off, and finally, she pulled her undershirt over her head. Standing in nothing but her underwear, bra, and dog tags, Margot put her clothes to the side and walked into the tent.

More eyes were on her, but she paid them no mind as she picked a free spot next to Liebgott and behind Malarkey and let the water run over her body. Closing her eyes, Margot tilted her head up and let the stream hit her face and soak her hair. After a minute or so of standing there, her breathing slow as she enjoyed the warmth, she opened her eyes again to the entire tent staring at her.

"What?" she snapped. "Never seen a woman's body before? Grow up and keep your eyes on your own prize."

Immediately, all the heads that had been turned her way, snapped back around. However, the feeling of being watched still lingered. "Liebgott," she warned, knowing it was him before she even turned to face him. "I can actually  _feel_  your eyeballs on me. Could you maybe not?"

Liebgott slowly turned away, but Margot could still see his excited pupils flickering in her direction every few seconds. Letting out a groan, she snatched the bar of soap from his hands that he had stopped using and began to lather herself up with soap. This, however, only served to draw more attention again. 

Eventually, Margot realized that she just had to ignore the stares and do what she needed to do. In all fairness, she couldn't really blame the men. For most of them, it had been about two years since they had had any meaningful human contact, so they were pretty desperate for anything they could get. 

After soaping up her body, which made Margot notice just how much her ribs were showing due to how thin she had gotten, she used some of the soap for her hair and scrubbed it in really good with her fingertips before rinsing all of the suds off. 

Once she was clean and feeling better than she had in a long time, the female Paratrooper could only chuckle at the occasional glances she was still getting; many of them from Liebgott. 

"Wow, I'm  _way_   _dirtier_ than I expected. I really should just strip down all the way and give everything a really good scrub." Margot couldn't help messing with the guys a little. With her words, many hands that had previously been busy with washing up, froze. 

Even Malarkey, who thus far had been respectful of her and her body, had craned his neck to look at her. 

Margot let out a hearty laugh as she ran her fingers through her hair one last time to remove any tangles or chunks of dirt. "Men, I wish you the best for putting up with me, I really do." she tossed the bar of soap back to Liebgott before sauntering out of the tent. 

All-in-all, Margot was sure that a good time had been had by all. 


	43. Hershey Bars

With wet hair and a fresh uniform on, Margot was feeling better than she had in weeks. There was just something simply healing about standing under some warm water for a few minutes and changing into some clothes that weren't caked in mud, blood, dirt, and God knows what else. Now all that was on the woman's mind was tracking down some hot food before having to go on the evening patrol.

The tall, toned, and now extremely thin machine-gunner from North Carolina — just like everyone else who had been picked — wasn't looking forward to crossing a freezing river in a dingy little boat, in the middle of the night, into enemy territory in the slightest. To Margot, the thought of risking the lives of good American troopers just to capture some POWs didn't seem to be worth it, but then again, she wasn't in the Battalion; maybe they knew something she didn't. Scratch that, they most definitely knew things she didn't — the question was; were those things worth risking lives over?

Wrapping her hands around the ends of her hair, Margot rung out as much water as she could just as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up, the machine-gunner noticed Malarkey standing to her left, dressed head to toe in fresh ODs just like she was. "I'm gonna head back," he told her plainly. "You coming?"

"Yeah," Margot nodded and fell into pace beside him, their boots squishing in the wet mud due to the runoff from the nearby shower. 

Just as the two were about to round the corner onto the main street, a faint voice caught their attention. "Sergeants!" Lieutenant Jones jogged up to them. "I was wondering if either of you would be willing to let me take your spot on the patrol tonight? I could really use the experience."

Margot and Malarkey looked to each other, a look of amusement and relief on their faces. As much as the kid's eagerness was irritating, his request to take their place on the mission was like an early Christmas present. 

Malarkey smiled slightly and Margot noticed the stress lines around his mouth and eyes. She could see the exhaustion on him so clearly, it was as if he had been doused in a large bucket of it. "You can take Sergeant Malarkey's place." Margot volunteered herself to stay on the patrol even though every bone in her body begged her to jump at the opportunity of what could be a full, decent night's sleep. "He deserves the break more than I do."

Malarkey exhaled slowly, his eyes brightening at the words he had just heard. He wanted a break so badly he would almost be willing to kill for it, but on the other hand, if Margot had asked for it, there would have been no way he could consciously take it from her. 

With the news that Malarkey had no quarrels about the young Lieutenant taking his place, Jones was so full of joy he practically skipped off like a little school girl as he left to find Winters and ask his permission. In the end, it would be up to Winters, and Winters alone.

●●● 

Walking into the supply room, Annie made a beeline right for the shelves and immediately began rummaging around for any medical supplies she could hoard. As much as she hated feeling like a little morphine goblin, she knew that she wasn't going to get anything by asking politely. The small blonde had learned early on in the game that if you wanted something, you took it; plain and simple.

"You look deranged." an all-too-familiar voice piped up from behind her. 

Ready for the teasing she was about to be bombarded with, Annie sighed and spun around, her eyes already set on Luz, who was standing at the desk in the opposite corner of the room doing inventory on the various supplies that had been delivered.

The medic was about to throw a witty retort back, but when she saw what was tucked in the radioman's hands, all thoughts of messing with the man dissipated. "Is that chocolate?" she asked curiously as she took a few slow, deliberate steps closer.

Luz looked down at the Hershey bars in his hands and then back up at the blonde girl. A devilish smile spread across his face as an idea popped into his head. "It might be." he waved the bar in a taunting fashion. "What's it to you?"

"Oh, Georgie," Annie slid up beside him and snaked her arm over his shoulders, her eyes never leaving the candy for a second. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?" she batted her eyelashes comically. "Out of all the men in Easy Company, you are by far the most handsome."

"Flattery will get you everywhere with me, darlin'," he held the chocolate just out of reach, enjoying the little game he had started. "But there's not enough to go around. What if the guys start thinking I'm giving you special treatment? Playing favourites?"

Annie tried to snatch the prize from George's hand, but he was too quick. "But I _am_ your favourite, aren't I Georgie?"

Luz couldn't help but swoon whenever the blonde medic called him that, but he knew he couldn't give up so easily. He had a goal, and by God, he was going to reach it. Taking his right pointer finger, he turned his head and tapped his cheek three times. "One kiss for one bar." he set out the deal. "Take it or leave it."

"Only _one_ bar?" she furrowed her brows. "I don't know if that's a fair reward for something as magical as one of my healing medic kisses."

George thought for a moment, his eyes examining the brown, paper wrapped treats in his hands. "Two bars for one kiss." he finally compromised. "That's as high as I'll go."

Annie stared back at him for a moment or two, contemplating the new deal for a little bit, before finally puckering up and beginning to lean in. George felt his heart begin to pound against his ribcage, but he managed to hold it together as the sweet girl's beautiful pink lips slowly neared his cheek. He could feel her warm breath on his skin and closed his eyes in anticipation, but nothing happened.

After a few more seconds of nothing, the radioman opened his eyes again and turned his head to see the blonde girl smiling wide at him. "You'll have to give me a little while to mull over the proposition." she giggled, pulling away and leaving George feeling strangely alone. 

"You're such a little tease, you know that?" he tutted as Martin and Cobb sauntered in, their eyes catching the sacred chocolate within seconds.

As Annie moved back over to the shelves to keep digging for supplies, Luz watched her carefully, his eyes focused on the way strands of her blonde hair that fell from her bun rested on her shoulders while his ears listened to Martin and Cobb beg for a Hershey bar.

When the medic turned around and caught the radioman looking, Luz's head snapped back to the men. "Goddamnit, Johnny, you're breaking my heart here, I'm telling you." he went back to counting the chocolate bars.

"Come on, George, just give me, I don't know, ten, fifteen bars." Martin leaned against the counter.

Reaching into the box beside him, Luz pulled out a small package before smacking it down in front of the begging man. "There you go. Juicy Fruit, happy?"

Martin glared down at the small package of gum as if it had personally insulted his wife. He opened his mouth to protest, but his complaining was cut off by Vest marching in and plopping another full box down beside Luz. "We just got a report of movement." he directed his words to the radioman. "1st Sergeant Lipton wants you to lay a few bazooka rounds into a house across the river."

Luz rolled his eyes as the bickering Martin and Luz were shoved out of the way by Liebgott, Jones, and Webster. "Come on, George, you're 1st Platoon at heart." Cobb attempted to persuade the man in charge of the goods.

"Jesus, Cobb, there's not enough." 

"Whoa, Hershey bars!" Liebgott's face lit up when he spotted the sweet treats. Annie couldn't help but laugh at how the supply room had suddenly turned into a candy shop full of little kids desperate to get their sugar fixes.

Luz pulled the bars closer to his body, his arms wrapping protectively around them. "Jesus Christ," he muttered.

Annie half listened as Liebgott and Luz went back and forth about the candy, Liebgott begging over and over again for just one bar and Luz repeatedly telling him that there wasn't enough to go around.

"Is Captain Spiers here?" Jones asked; the conversation finally being about something other than the damn Hershey bars.

"Down by the river, sir," Luz answered.

As a hand rested on the shelf next to where she was standing, Annie turned to see Perconte standing beside her. The medic smiled wide when she saw that her friend was back on his feet again after getting a bullet to the butt in Foy. The two shared a quick hug before the man decided it was time to greet the others in the room.

"Hey, big mouth, give the kid a Hershey bar, huh?" Perconte called.

The heads at the desk turned and the men began to chuckle, excited to see that their comrade had returned. "You gotta be shittin' me." Luz laughed.

"I like what you did with the place, George." Perconte looked around the rather barren room that was decorated with dark wallpaper and various photos. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did good, huh?" Luz tossed Frank a chocolate bar, which of course, had Liebgott complaining again in no time.

Pushing through the crowd, Martin approached Perconte and shook his hand. The two started talking about something, but Annie only caught the tail end of Martin's sentence. "Did I tell you to stick your big ass out in the wind?" he joked.

"No, but I expect a little sympathy from you. Right?" Perconte retorted.

"Should I rub it for you?" Martin's hand began to reach around to Perconte's behind, which caused the shorter man to jump away. "Hey, can you believe this guy?" Martin chortled. "Try to get him out of the fucking war, he comes straight back."

Perconte shrugged as he shifted the helmet in his arms. "Yeah, well, that's not what I heard. I heard the Krauts are finished."

"Wouldn't that be nice." Annie huffed as she stood on her tiptoes to reach a solitary bandage that sat at the very back of the shelf. 

Liebgott nodded. "Yeah, well, just to make sure, we gotta row across the fucking river tonight, grab a few, and ask 'em in person."

"Are you kidding me?" Frank's face flushed with confusion. 

"Wish I was, welcome back, Frank."

In the midst of the moment the men were having, Luz turned around the grab something. "Oh, Jesus, that reminds me, Web. I need you to run these to OP two for me. Grenade launchers for the night patrol, huh?" he held the heavy crate out to Webster. "Any day now, Web, there you go." he started tossing various items into the box as well. "Hey, you know what, send these too."

Giving up the search that resulted in one bandage and an empty morphine bottle, Annie made her way across the room to join the guys, her eyes casually peeking inside of the crates for anything that might be hiding. 

Vest was going on about some fresh Lieutenant from West Point that got his foot blown off by a shoe mine during D Company's evening patrol. Annie had remembered Eugene — or maybe it was Spina? — mentioning something about it as she rushed into the aid station to look for something to help with Lipton's pneumonia, but she wasn't all too concerned with it if she was being honest. The guy was going to live, and during a war, sometimes that's all you can hope for.

Annie could see the worry on Jones' face, seeing as he had also just arrived from West Point himself, but he masked most of the concern quite well with a stern, commanding expression. "No shit." Luz popped a smoke into his mouth before turning to Jones. "Maybe he's a friend of yours, Lieutenant."

"Be nice," Annie warned. She didn't have to say much more than that to get Luz to drop it. However, not everyone was willing to act civilly. 

"Hey, Vest, what you got in there?" Cobb eyed the company errand-boy, for lack of a better term. "More Hershey bars and Lucky Strikes for your rear echelon fucks to hoard, huh?"

"Cobb, are you deaf?" Annie snapped. "Did I not just say to be nice? Huh? 'Cuz I coulda swore I heard the words come out of the mouth."

Cobb glared at the girl, much like he had that evening in the Bar in Aldbourne, but then he remembered how that evening had turned out, with him punching Liebgott and Margot being ready to rip his throat out, and he wisely left it alone. 

"Hey, hey, Cobb, with the mouth, please." Luz took Annie's side and stood up for Vest. "The kid's just trying to do his job, alright? Jesus Christ...you know what, to hell with it. Count 'em up Vest." he picked up the Hershey bars and tossed them haphazardly into the box in Vest's hands. "I gotta go blast this house."

Vest looked down at the bars scattered in his box and then up at Cobb. "You happy now?"

As Luz grabbed his rifle and swung it over his shoulder, Webster followed behind him with the crate still in his arms. "Sergeant, is Captain Spiers gonna be where you're headed?" Jones asked.

"Same vicinity, yeah," Luz spoke around the unlit cigarette between his lips.

"Alright, then I'll join you."

"Where are we going?" Webster adjusted the heavy crate in his hands. 

Luz sighed, clearly getting fed up with all of the questions. "To the house I gotta blast."

"Captain Winters gonna be with him?" Vest piped up.

"Jesus, look, I don't know, maybe."

Annie chuckled as the remaining men began to pillage the supplies that had been left unattended by Luz and Vest. "You guys are stressing our poor radioman out," she commented as she pushed herself away from the counter and joined the small group. "I'll walk out with you guys."

"Thank God." Luz drew in a deep breath, thankful for some company that he could actually tolerate.

As the men and Annie headed out, the sounds of Liebgott and Cobb fighting over the chocolate and smokes in the distance, Luz fell into place beside the female medic at the front of the pack, leading the way. 

Peering back into the box in Webster's hands, Annie subtly checked if there were any medical supplies, but of course, there were not. "In what world is a chocolate bar more important than plasma?" she shoved her hands into her pockets as they exited the relative warmth of the building.

"This one," Luz answered despite the question being rhetorical. 

Pulling up her sleeve and checking the time on her watch, Annie noted that it was about time she headed back to CP to check on Lipton and make sure he hadn't succumbed to his pneumonia right there on that damned couch that he refused to move from. 

"Ah, I gotta go make sure Lipton is still breathing." Annie somewhat mumbled to herself even though Luz could hear her perfectly. "See you later, Georgie."

As the girl turned to leave, Luz reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled something out. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Spinning around, Annie smiled when she saw the solitary Hershey bar in his hand. Walking back the few steps she had taken, the small girl took the bar with one hand while using the other to stabilize the radioman's stubbled face. With pursed lips and the hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. "You owe me another bar." she teased before tucking the treat away for later and jogging off in the direction of CP.

Luz watched the medic go, a small smile spreading across his face and the cigarette in his mouth dangling from his bottom lip. Webster and Jones eyed each other and then Luz, but the man was too preoccupied in his own mind to notice.

Luz wasn't sure if that sweet, stubborn girl from Connecticut would ever know the effect she had on him, but for the time being, he was happy with the fleeting moments the two had here and there and the memory of staring up at the stars with her to fall back on when he needed to feel better; to feel _something_. 

The radioman wasn't oblivious to the way Joeseph Liebgott looked at the small girl either, but then again, she gained plenty of male attention, whether she noticed it or not. There was just something about her that could make a man feel safe and secure even if he was sitting in enemy territory, knee deep in quicksand, with bullets flying all around. 

When times got rough and it wasn't looking good for Easy Company, Luz would seek out the girl and take comfort in how she remained so calm in the face of chaos. Many men did the same, but Luz hoped there was something different when it came to himself and Sergeant Annie Winslow. 

Sometimes Luz was convinced she was his very own Lady Luck. 


	44. Ten-Hut!

Wandering into the CP a few minutes before 1700, Margot scanned the room full of men that would be going on the patrol with her. Thankfully, the group consisted of a lot of good troopers that she trusted, like Liebgott, Shifty, Popeye, Grant, and Babe. It had been a while since Margot and Babe had been forced to use their M1 Browning, so she was looking forward to fighting alongside him again. 

Lieutenant Jones was leaning by the doorway, his eyes focused straight ahead at the wall. Margot could tell he was trying not to pay attention to the conversation that was happening around the table; the conversation about him. 

The men were mumbling among themselves, not very quietly or considerately, about how they did not trust the Lieutenant to lead the patrol. Margot, however, wasn't worried in the slightest. She knew he wouldn't be leading the patrol because  _she_  was supposed to. Her and whoever else Winters decided. 

Along with the inexperienced Lieutenant, Vest and Webster had also been selected, and Margot knew she would have to keep an eye out for them. Webster had no doubt been chosen as a translator due to his ability to speak German — thank you, Harvard — because he was on the more skittish end of the weapon-handling spectrum. This was rather confusing, however, because Liebgott was also present, and he was fluent in the language as well. Then there was Vest, and even though Margot adored the sweet man, he hadn't done much more than deliver mail during his time in the service. 

"Everyone is looking rather thrilled," Margot commented on the sullen expressions throughout the room. "What's the matter? Don't feel up for a midnight stroll into German territory?"

Grant huffed as he pushed his chair back and lifted his feet up onto the tabletop. "Not if we're following some greenie from West Point." he retorted. "Can't believe he's leading this thing."

"He's not leading this thing." Margot decided it would be best to inform the men before they said something stupid in front of Winters or, God forbid, Spiers. "I am. Me and some other lucky sonofabitch."

"Hey, that's great!" Liebgott smiled, his tone laced with sarcasm. "PTSD Princess is  _way_  better than Last-Ditch Lieutenant over there."

Margot rolled her eyes as a few of the men snickered, but she was more than used to the constant ribbing between herself and the men of the company. "Oh, Liebgott," she sighed as Cobb, Garcia, and a few other men entered the room. "After tonight, I won't be the only one with PTSD."

Liebgott wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Is that a threat or a promise?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Ten-hut!" Jones announced suddenly, startling Margot as she was too busy staring down Liebgott to notice Winters and Martin stroll in.

The men jumped to their feet, but Winters immediately dismissed them. Margot locked eyes with Martin and he gave her a small nod, indicating that he would be the one leading the patrol with her. Margot was relieved; not only was Martin a good soldier, but he was a good man as well. She knew she would have no problems working with him. 

"Gentlemen. Woman." Winters greeted the group. "As you can see we've assembled fifteen of you here for this prisoner snatch tonight, 0100. Just a couple of points. Secured four rubber boats to get you across the river. Lieutenant Jones here is the ranking officer, and he'll be along as an observer. Sergeant Martin and Sergeant Kessler will lead the patrol. The whole Battalion will be covering your withdrawal. We've identified targets, we've planned fire for 'em." Winters pulled two whistles out of his pocket and handed one each to Martin and Margot. "We hear these whistles, we open up. So don't blow 'em 'till you're back in your boats with your prisoners."

Martin folded his arms across his chest. "And if the house turns out to be empty, Sir?"

"It won't," Winters was confident of that fact. "But in any case, we know it's an outpost and want it destroyed, so you'll have to lay some demo on a time delay. You have to move fast but carefully. Put a perimeter around the house. Once that's in place, get your rifle grenades in the first-floor window. Get your assault team in quick. Remember, it's about prisoners. Don't pop the first thing that moves. Clear?"

"Yes, Sir." the room chorused. 

Turning to the two Sergeants, Winters gave them a small nod. "Would you like a few seconds to pick your assault team?"

Moving to the corner of the room, Margot and Martin spoke quietly among themselves, hashing out who they wanted where. The groups' skills were fairly set in stone, however, so it didn't take long for the two to know who was going to do what. 

Moving back to the table, Martin eyed the men. "McClung, Sisk, Cobb, Garcia." he laid out the assault team. "And Webster, as translator."

Margot nodded. "The rest of you guys, a base of fire with Sergeant Grant." 

Reaching into his pocket, Martin pulled out his whistle and tossed it to Grant. "You speak German, right, Webster?" he then eyed the quiet man standing to the left of Liebgott's chair. 

"Yeah, a little bit," Webster answered.

"Good." Martin glared at the man for some unknown reason to Margot. "That's my team, Sir."

"Questions?" Winters opened up the floor for any concerns the men might have. When no one spoke up, he exhaled slowly. "Good luck."

With that, he turned to leave, tapping Margot and Martin on the arms as he did so, silently telling them to follow him. "Ten-hut!" Jones shouted again, making the raven-haired woman jump once more. 

"As you were, carry one." Winters, just like before, dismissed the men. 

Outside of CP, Margot followed Winters and Martin to where Speirs was standing; Jones close on her heels. The five gathered in a small huddle and began discussing a few of the more intimate details of the mission. Margot questioned if a medic would be needed for the patrol, but Winters stated that they weren't going far enough to risk putting a medic's life in danger. He did, however, say that he would have Eugene and Annie on standby for when they returned, but he couldn't have stressed enough to Margot and Martin how badly he wanted them to be careful and keep things clean. 

"I want this by the book," he told them simply. "Nothing fancy. Get in, get the prisoners, set the timed demo, get out. Four steps."

"Four steps," Martin repeated, assuring the Captain he understood his concerns.

"Sir?" Webster approached the small gathering. "Liebgott and I, we both speak German."

Winters furrowed his brow. "Yeah?"

"You said fifteen men, there are sixteen of us, including two translators."

"Fine." Spiers acknowledged as he turned to the passing huddle of men. "Hey, Liebgott, you wanna sit this one out?"

A wicked smile spread across the Jewish man's face. "Yes, Sir," he nodded before turning to Webster and winking. "Thanks, buddy."

"Oh, no PTSD for you." Margot teased him. "I'll still get you," she added as an afterthought.

Liebgott laughed. "Now I hope _that's_  a promise."

With that, Liebgott walked off and Webster slipped away without another word. Spiers had seen right through the man's intentions to get out of the patrol and had given the pass to someone more deserving, which Margot couldn't have agreed with more. Liebgott had been on the line pretty much non-stop since Normandy aside from his small stop at the aid-station to fix up his neck in Holland. Webster, on the other hand, had just gotten off a four-month stay in a hospital. A little dirt under his fingernails wasn't going to kill him. 

The Captain, two Lieutenants, and two Sergeants continued their conversation; going over a few more things here and there like position and what to pay special attention to. When the plan had finally been hashed out from beginning to end, the group dispersed and Margot and Martin headed back to where the rest of the men were most likely grabbing some food and resting up before the patrol. 

"You think it's gonna go smoothly?" Margot asked as she side-stepped a rather large puddle. She knew she could always count on the stern, but caring, man to be brutally honest. 

Martin shrugged slightly. "No way to tell. Just wish we didn't have so many newbies. Jones, Vest, that Jackson kid is still pretty fresh. I don't trust Webster as far as I could throw him."

"Liebgott was one of the few men I actually had complete faith in and now he's gone. Not that I don't think he deserves the break. He does." Margot adjusted the strap of her rifle on her shoulder in order to prevent the thick material from digging into her skin. "I don't know. I've never lead anything like this before. If I'm being honest here, Martin, I'm a fucking nervous wreck."

Martin turned to the woman, his eyes scanning her up and down. "You don't show it."

"I try not to," she stated. "Doesn't do anyone any good to see their Sergeant shaking in her goddamn boots." 

Martin snorted with slight amusement, which was a rare expression of emotion for him. "That's why I'm here."

"You're not worried?"

"Not really."

"Well then, in that case." Margot rounded the corner of the building and started up the steps for the front door. "Thanks for babysitting me, Martin."

"Anytime, kid."

Walking through the front door, Margot was immediately hit by a rather unusual yet familiar scent; Malarkey's cooking. Making her way down to the basement of the building where most of the commotion was coming from, the machine-gunner was impressed with her sniffer when she did indeed see Malarkey dishing out whatever he had concocted. 

"Okay, you men going on patrol. Nothing rattles, nothing shines. No helmets." Martin announced to the large group as he removed his own helmet and sat it down on the table.

Margot chuckled a little at the comment that popped into her head. "It's okay." she took a seat next to Annie, who was already chowing down on whatever Malarkey had ladled into her cup. "I wasn't using my brain matter anyway."

"Yeah, we can tell." the words left Annie's mouth before she even had a chance to filter them through her head. The off-handed remark sent the basement into eruptions of laughter.

"God, you're spending too much time around Luz, Liebgott, and I." Margot shook her head even though she was impressed with her friend's banter improvement. 

Walking up behind the taller woman, Malarkey set a steel cup down in front of her before pouring a helping of what looked like some sort of stew into it. "Thanks for letting me stay behind." he smiled down at Margot. "I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem," Margot assured him, not wanting him to feel even the smallest sliver of guilt about staying behind. "You and Liebgott can kick back and laugh as we all scramble across the river."

Annie looked up as Liebgott slid into the seat across from her. "You got taken off the patrol?"

"Mmhmm. All thanks to my best pal, Webster." he smiled wide as his eyes flickered to the back of Webster's head.

"Congratulations." the blonde girl spooned the last bit of food into her mouth before setting the empty cup aside. "You can help me get my supplies ready."

Liebgott scoffed as he reached for a cracker from the pile that had been laid out in the middle of the old, wooden table. "That sounds like something you would sucker Luz into doing."

"That it is." she agreed. "But you can help too. There's always room for more hands. The more the merrier."

Liebgott shoved the whole cracker into his mouth. "Not always..." he mumbled with his mouth full, his eyes drifting down to study the grain of the wood. 

Margot watched as the man suddenly grew quieter and more withdrawn, and unlike sweet, naive Annie, she knew exactly why. It was no secret that both Joe Liebgott and George Luz pined after the kind, beautiful, blonde medic. Well, it was no secret to every  _except_  Annie. Bless that poor girl's heart but Margot was sure she wouldn't even catch on if one of them presented her with a bouquet of roses and recited poetry to her. 

Annie was usually too caught up in her work to worry about anything else, and when she did have the rare chance to just spend some time with the men and Margot, she was so focused on enjoying the moment that she usually missed the way Liebgott would watch her from across the room or the way Luz always tried his darndest to sit as close to her as possible, striking up a conversation whenever or wherever he could. 

Margot never missed it though. Ever since she had seen the way Liebgott's eyes lit up when she told him Annie liked him in Holland, she kept a close watch on him and the radioman for good measure. She was protective over Annie like a big sister would be and she knew she would hate to see one of them go and mess with her feelings, or even worse — sort of like what had happened to her — have her catch feelings and then watch one of them be taken off the lines or killed. 

The men had good intentions, and even though Margot tried to remind herself of that as much as she could, she couldn't help herself from wanting to save the smaller girl from potential heartbreak. She didn't need another one during the war. She didn't need another Steve. 

"Earth to Margot." Annie waved her hand in front of her friend's face. "Hello? Sergeant Kessler."

Margot's glazed-over eyes focused on reality again as the hand in her face pulled her from her thoughts. "What?" she looked up to see Annie staring at her. "What's up?"

"I was trying to ask you if you were ready for tonight." Annie giggled, her small dimples making an appearance as she did so. "You were a million miles away though. Where did you go?"

"Nowhere." Margot lied as she turned her body to face her friend. "Nowhere, sorry. I was just thinking about...it doesn't matter."

Annie propped her elbow up on the table and rested her head in her hand. "I like nowhere. I go there a lot when I'm doing something mindless like inventory...or talking to Liebgott." she threw in the little jab, but the man across the table wasn't paying enough attention to notice. "Anyway," the medic rolled her eyes. "Tonight? You ready?"

"I hope so," Margot shrugged. "Really just wish none of us had to go at all."

"Kinda wish I was going," Annie admitted. "Not that I really desire a trip into Kraut town, but sitting here doing nothing is just gonna make me stressed. I don't like being stressed."

Margot's mouth curled up into a small smile. "You're always stressed."

"Which is why I know I don't like it."

"Fair point."

While the men slowly slipped into "go-time" mode, the room quieted as one by one they started cleaning their guns, removing anything noisy or shiny from their uniforms and mentally preparing themselves. 

Margot did the same, but while she worked, Annie kept reminding her to be safe and keep her head down. The medic had started her nervous babbling and Margot knew there was nothing she could do but try to tune it out and wait for it to end. 

As the sun began to set and the sky transitioned into various dark shades of blue and purple, the basement had fallen into complete and utter silence. The reality of what was about to happen was slowly sinking in and the men looked upon one another, silently bidding goodbyes while they had the chance.

No one knew if all fifteen Paratroopers that crossed the river would return again, alive or otherwise. No one knew and everyone was terrified to find out. 


	45. Temporary Pain

The still, black water was more than ominous. As Margot stared out at it, its dark form separating her from the Germans, she felt a wave of dread rush over her. She wasn't sure why she felt this way, but a nagging thought at the back of her mind told her that if she fell into that water, she would disappear into the darkness, never to be seen again.

Beside the woman, the men were securing the rope that stretched from the far side of the river to a large tree and getting the small boats ready. Martin was checking in with all of the troopers, his eyes glancing toward Margot every few seconds or so, taking note of how her green irises never left the water.

"Hey," Martin walked over and placed a hand on the machine-gunner's shoulder. His voice was soft and comforting, which was a welcomed change to what was his usual bitter, short-tempered remarks. "You ready?"

Margot blinked a few times at the touch and nodded, hoping she hadn't set off too many alarm bells in his head with her mental disappearing act. "Yeah, yeah, good to go." she snapped out of whatever trance the river had pulled her into and helped push the rubber boats into the cold water. 

Margot and Martin helped the men into the boats one by one before carefully stepping into one themselves. Once the four small vessels were full, hands reached up to grasp the rope and begin pulling the group across the water.

"Keep it steady," Martin instructed. "Keep it steady."

Hearing a serious of hushed cursing, Margot looked behind her just in time to see the last boat — the one that Cobb, Garcia, and Sisk were in — tip over and send the men into the freezing liquid. "I can't swim!" Garcia called out, drawing even more attention to himself than he and the others already had by taking an unplanned dip. 

"Eyes forward!" Margot ordered the remaining men. "Keep going."

Martin nodded as he tightened his grip on the rope with his gloved hands and continued to assist in pulling his boat across the river. The three men who had fallen out eventually made it back to shore, no doubt freezing, but no more worse for wear than they had started out as. In fact, Margot sort of thought of them as lucky. Sure, they had to take an unpleasant bath, but now they got to go inside, warm up, and not have to worry about the prisoner snatch in the slightest.

Cobb sure had a way of always getting out of things in the weirdest way; first Normandy, now this. He sort of reminded Margot of Webster, only Webster's excuses were a lot less convincing and usually required a lot less discomfort than say, for example, getting pegged with plane shrapnel. 

As soon as the first boat reached the opposite side, the men and Margot jumped out as fast and as quietly as they could, making sure to tie the boats down to prevent them from floating away before their return trip.

Dropping onto their stomachs, Margot and Martin lead the way, crawling through the thin layer of snow that covered the ground and approaching the first trap, a barbed trip-wire attached to cans that would rattle if anything was disturbed.

Grabbing the two strands of wire that stretched low to the ground, Martin held them still while Margot reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of wire cutters. With a quick snip, both wires snapped back a little, wanting to recoil once the tension was gone.

Grabbing a side each, Margot and Martin scooted out of the way and directed the rest of the group through. Two at a time, the men crawled past the trap before jumping to their feet and dashing for the nearest area of cover. The men spread out a little, some ducking behind half-standing brick walls and others behind piles of debris. 

Once everyone was through, Margot and Martin joined the rest of the team. Margot's hands wrapped tight around her rifle as she kept her head on a swivel, her eyes peeled for even the slightest sign of movement. 

Scoping out the area, Martin made sure the coast was clear before sending Shifty and McClung out. The two leading Sergeants followed suit, sending the rest of the troopers up in pairs. 

Slowly, bit by bit, the group advanced on the desired objective; an old building that hopefully had Germans inside. 

Behind a pile of chopped wood, the patrol team waited anxiously for further instructions. Margot waved for Martin to go as she did another quick sweep. She caught the sway of a few branches out of the corner of her eye, but besides the initial concern, she quickly ruled it out as nothing more than nature doing what it did best at night; tricking your eyes.

Crouched low, the woman darted across the opening and settled in beside Martin. The two patrol leaders made eye contact, giving each other an assuring nod, before the final part of the mission was laid out. 

"Powers, Wynn, secure the left flank." Margot turned to Shifty and Popeye.

Martin, simultaneously, pointed out three other men. "Lieutenant," he spoke to Jones. "Take Grant and Heffron, secure the right perimeter and the crossroads. Clear?"

When everyone who had been given an order nodded, Margot gave them a wave. "Security out, go."

Leaving just six of them, the remaining group moved up even further, approaching the building and sneaking their way around it. Margot's shoulder was pressed firmly into the hard, cold exterior wall as she followed Martin, her eyes glued to the back of his neck. 

Coming to the staircase, Martin motioned for the group to get down while he prepared his rifle grenade. His hands worked fast and efficiently, and when Shifty gave him a nod, he jumped out from his cover and fired his grenade into the nearest window.

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the otherwise still and silent night. As the grenade could be heard bouncing off of the floorboards inside the building, exploding seconds later and bursting the remaining windows, Jackson pushed past Margot and started up the outdoor steps.

"Jackson, hold on!" Martin tried to warn the boy as dust and shards of glass fell down on them, but the replacement was too in his own head to be able to hear the hushed warnings. 

Margot watched in horror as Jackson plucked a grenade off of his person, pulled the pin, tossed it in through one of the newly broken windows, and ran for the door. The poor kid was going to get hit by his own goddamn grande blast.

Before Margot even knew what she was doing, she was on her feet and starting up the stairs after the nervous man. "Jackson!" she called his name as his hand reached for the doorknob. "Wait!"

As Jackson threw the door open, Margot hurled her body toward his. The grande went off, illuminating the room with a flash of bright light as the Germans inside the building shrieked in surprise and pain. 

Margot could feel the shrapnel hitting the side of her face and torso as her arms wrapped around Jackson's body and tackled him to the ground. She had tried to save him from the blast, tried to protect his face and neck with her body, but she hadn't been quick enough. It seemed, she was  _never_  quick enough.

Margot let out a moan — although it came out sounding more like a frantic gasp — as her and Jackson's bodies hit the ground. Jackson was screaming bloody murder beside her, his hands covering his face as he rolled around in agony. Margot was still, her eyes studying the cracks on the baseboard as she laid on her side. She could taste the blood as it dripping down the side of her face, some catching on her lips while the rest fell into a small puddle on the floor.

Her ears were filled with the sound of muddled voices, some German, some English, and some sounding like a cocktail of both combined. The woman closed her eyes and tried to focus on the words that were being said — focus on anything but the pain.

She could hear Webster yelling out, one sentence in German, the next in English. The loudest voice in the room, however, was Martin. His sharp, booming voice took charge of the situation, commanding men to tie up the prisoners and others to set the timed explosives.

"Holy shit." Babe's words fell out of his open mouth as he stood over Margot's body. From what he could see, she looked just as bad as Jackson, if not worse. Slinging his rifle over his body, the redhead dropped to his knees and slowly flipped his partner onto her back.

He relaxed a little when he saw that only half of her face had been hit, but the half that had been affected didn't look at all promising. "How do I look?" Margot sputtered, the blood that had collected on her lips running down her chin and onto the collar of her uniform. 

"Awh, hell, you look as beautiful as ever," Babe assured her as he used his sleeve to wipe away as much of the crimson liquid as possible, allowing him to get a better look at at the deep cuts.

Rushing over in between shouting at Webster and the Germans, Martin peered down at his fellow Sergeant and felt his heart drop at the sight of her. "Hey, kid." he used the same gentle tone with her as he had back on the American side of the river. 

"Jackson." Margot coughed, her right hand moving to her face. "Is he okay? Is he alive?"

Martin glanced over at Jackson, who was still crying out in agony a few feet away. "He's alive." was all he could muster as a response; anything else was to up in the air for him to be comfortable with saying. 

Margot's head tilted to the side, her breathing hitching when she saw Jackson lying there, his head in Vest's lap and Vest looking down at his blood-soaked hands. It was Jackson's blood. He was covered in Jackson's blood.

Margot let out a sob. Not one of pain, no, but one of despair. She hadn't been able to save Julian or Bill or Joe...and now she hadn't been able to save Jackson. She was never fast enough. She was always one step behind. "I tried." her words came out in gurgles as more of the blood gathered in her mouth. "I thought I could get to him in time. I tried!"

Martin and Babe looked to each other, neither one knowing what to say in order to calm down the frightened woman. 

Martin felt the weight on his shoulders increase as he spun back around to the chaos and laid out the plan. Once Webster had primed the demo on the time delay, he told Rameriz to help Vest with Jackson while the rest of the men dealt with the three German prisoners, one of which had been badly wounded by the grenade blast as well. 

"Okay, Heffron, help me out here." Martin threw his rifle over his shoulder and reached down for the injured machine-gunner. 

Margot's head was swimming, so much so that she hadn't realized she was in Babe's arms and out of the building until she was hit with a cold blast of air and the sound of gunshots filled her already ringing ears. Aside from the screaming and the gunfire, she could hear Jackson wailing. Every wordless plea that ripped from his throat tore off another piece of Margot's heart.

She had tried to save him. She had tried. She had.

Gunfire. Screaming. English. German. Footsteps. Crunching Snow. Water.

Margot's eyes were screwed shut, her body was riddled with pain, and her tongue was tainted by the taste of blood, leaving hearing as her only reliable sense as to what was going on, and even then, her ears still held a constant, high-pitched squealing. 

"I can't believe I got hit again," Margot slurred, her eyes rolling back into her head ever-so-slightly as her head lolled backward.

Babe slowed for a brief second to adjust his grip on the woman, hoisting her up further into his arms before he continued back toward the river with the rest of the men. "You're gonna be just fine." his lips quivered, but not from the cold. He too had been through this before with Julian. If losing a replacement had affected him that much, the redhead from Philly was terrified of what losing his partner would do to him. 

"You keep your eyes open," he demanded. "You stay with me."

"I can't believe I got hit," Margot repeated once more, her thoughts jumbled in her head like an impossible Wordsearch puzzle. "I can't believe I couldn't save him."

Explosions went off all over the property, dirt soaring into the sky and raining down hard like hail in the middle of winter. When the patrol blew the whistles that Winters had supplied them with, gunfire sprayed from across the body of water as well. The chaos doubled.

The next thing Margot knew, she was lying on the bottom of one of the rubber boats, her torso leaning back against Babe, her head in his arms. "We gotta go now!" Babe yelled, his eyes moving to meet with Martin's. "Let's go!"

The sound of the water slapping rhythmically against the side of the boat soothed Margot more than she ever thought it could. Letting her eyes fall to the side, she stared out at the dark water once more, no longer feeling a sense of dread from it, but instead peace. 

She knew it wasn't healthy, but the thought of just wiggling herself out of Babe's arms and into the water seemed more tempting than she would care to admit. Before, the thought of being engulfed by the void struck fear into her bones, but now, as she laid there in her partner's arms, she thought of being held tight by the unknown was a calming prospect. 

As the boats approached the shore, Martin waved his arms up at the nearest building. "MEDIC!" he shouted for Annie, who he knew would be on standby. "WE NEED A MEDIC!"

Annie's ears perked at the familiar call, and from where she was sitting beside Liebgott — the Jewish man firing machine-gun round after machine-gun round into Kraut territory — she leaned forward to get a better view of the river.

Her eyes landed on Jackson first, who was slung over Ramirez's shoulder in the first boat. Standing up, she moved to make a mad dash down the stairs to meet the group at the shore, but then she froze. In the middle boat was another body, this one smaller and wrapped up in someone's arms. 

If the troopers had been wearing helmets like any other time, Annie was sure she wouldn't have been able to identify the second victim. However, with the helmets missing, Annie's heart dropped when she recognized the shoulder-length raven locks. 

"Oh, no." the words left her mouth without her even noticing. 

The sickening feeling in the blonde medic's gut could have been enough to make her thrown up if her mind hadn't been set on getting to her injured friend as soon as possible. How was it that Margot had been seriously wounded twice and she had only ever had so much as a few minor bullet grazes?

How was it that she was always looking after the woman who was supposed to be looking after her? What had Margot done to deserve all of this pain; both mentally and physically? 

Annie had heard the saying 'pain is temporary' many times before in her life, but at that moment, she began to wonder, how much temporary pain does it take to build up into life-long pain? 

Just how much 'temporary pain' could one person handle?


	46. Reckless

By the time Annie got down to the shoreline, everything and everyone was in complete and utter pandemonium. Vest was shouting at the Krauts and waving his gun in their faces, threatening to shoot them. Martin was holding Vest back, telling him that if he shot one they would have to back for more. Jackson was screaming, Ramirez was struggling to get the injured boy out of the boat, Babe was calling for a medic, and Margot was lying limp in his arms. 

Gunfire was still flying from both sides of the river with the occasional mortar going off; which side it was from usually unclear. 

Perconte was by Annie's side, trying to help the men out of the boats the best he could. "Medic!" Babe cried out once more as he dragged Margot onto the dirt. At that point, the woman was more in shock than anything. Her green eyes were glassy and distant and her face was pale; even paler than usual. All of her colour had drained away along with any sign of emotion, almost as if she had left part of herself back on the German side of the water. 

"Margot." Annie rushed to her friend's aid, her attention still split between the woman and Jackson. "What happened?"

"Grenade blast." Martin overheard the question and answered before anyone else had the chance. "Jackson went in too early. Margot tried to save him."

Annie looked down at her friend for a moment, barely able to recognize her under the blood, dirt, sweat, and God knows what else that had accumulated on her skin. She looked empty, a shell of a person. With one loud, sudden cough, Margot spat out more of the blood that had collected in her mouth. "I tried." she finally spoke, proving that there was indeed still some life left behind those sunken eyes. 

"I know." Annie pushed some of Margot's hair back behind her ear before standing up again. "Okay, I want all the wounded inside right now! Someone go and get Eugene."

Perconte nodded and rushed off to locate the other Easy medic. As his footfalls grew quieter and quieter, Margot was scooped back up into Babe's arms once more and rushed into the nearest building and down to the basement.

Inside the confines of the cement basement, the frantic yelling was much louder, the voices bouncing off of the walls and echoing around. Margot watched out of the corner of her eye as the men who had been sitting and talking jumped up when Ramirez placed Jackson down onto the wooden table. 

Martin was still barking orders, directing Popeye to take the Kraut prisoners to the back of the room. Every few seconds though, the on-edge Sergeant glanced back at his fellow patrol leader, a deep desire burning inside of him; a desire to make all of her pain go away. If he could go back and change how it had all happened, he would do it in a heartbeat. 

Babe searched the room for somewhere to put Margot down, his arms beginning to ache from holding her. At the same time, however, he never wanted to let her go. As long as she was in his arms, she was safe; she was okay.

Jumping down the steps two at a time behind the rest of the patrol group, Annie darted to Jackson's side and plopped her medic bag down beside his body. "Hi there, Jackson." she greeted, her eyes flickering up to check on Margot, who was on one of the smaller counters, her body still cradled in Babe's arms. She prayed Eugene would get there soon and tend to her because she couldn't be in two places at once, and Jackson had gotten the brunt of the grenade frag.

Jackson's mouth fell open as he gasped for breath, his entire torso lifting off of the table as he writhed in pain. Annie was trying to soothe him as she worked, but the jumbled voices of both German and English were so loud that she could barely even hear herself think. 

"Webster." Annie looked up at the man across the table from her. "You have to help hold him down. I can't do anything while he's squirming like this."

Webster nodded, for once not trying to get out of completing a task. "Jackson, listen to me." he grabbed the smaller man hard by the shoulders. "You have to calm down or we can't help you."

"He's gonna fucking die!" Vest began blurting out over and over again. "He's gonna fucking die!"

"Will you shut up?!" Annie snapped at the panicked man to her right, her hands moving to push Jackson down onto the table. "You're not helping!"

Jackson looked up at Annie, blood sputtering from his mouth as he coughed. Just like Margot, only one side of his face had been hit, but it was worse; much worse. His skin had turned sheet-white and it looked like it might fall off at the simplest touch. Annie had nothing in her bag to treat this type of wound and no knowledge of how extensive the injuries were. Had his throat been sliced open by shrapnel? Was he bleeding out internally?

Like always, Annie was met by more questions than answers and was left feeling her way around in the metaphorical — and due to the poor lighting, slightly literal — darkness.

"Look at me, Jackson." Annie pulled out a cloth from among her supplies and started gently dabbing away the blood. "I need you to calm down, alright? I need you to take some deep breaths so I can help you."

Suddenly, there was a loud growl, and Annie caught a glimpse of Lieutenant Jones bolting from one side of the room to the other. There was a commotion going on with the German POWs, and of course, Vest was in the middle of it. Margot had been right when she said she didn't trust the ill-experienced mailman with a gun. Margot was usually right about things like that, that was what made her a good leader.

When Eugene came barreling down the staircase, Annie felt a weight lift from her shoulders. "Eugene, thank God!" she cried out. Her head turning to check on Margot once more. She was comforted by the sight of the woman still seemingly doing fine. 

Babe was sitting atop the counter, his partner in his arms, his hand stroking her head in a calming rhythm while he looked down at her, his mouth moving ever so slightly, indicating that he was speaking to her in a hushed voice.

"Eugene, help me here." Annie made the split-second decision that Jackson needed the extra help more than Margot. 

When the Cajun medic appeared beside Annie, the situation suddenly got a lot easier to deal with. Eugene's large hands grabbed Jackson's head as he examined the wounds, and for the first time, Jackson seemed to calm down a little.

The young man laid semi-still, his breathing laboured and followed by faint gurgling sounds. Placing his two fingers inside of Jackson's mouth, Eugene tilted the boy's head back and opened his jaw as wide as it could go. Like clockwork, Annie reached into her pocket for her flashlight and shone it down Jackson's throat. 

As the room fell silent, everyone waiting to hear what the medics had to say, Jackson's rugged breathing turned to fearful sobs. After a few seconds, Eugene looked up at Annie, his facial expression providing her with all the information she needed. It wasn't good.

"Alright, let's get him out of here." Eugene turned and motioned for the men to bring over the stretcher.

Sliding their hands underneath Jackson's body, Annie and Eugene slowly began to transfer him. "I don't wanna die!" Jackson spoke for the first time, his dark irises shifting from medic to medic. "I don't wanna die!"

"You're not going to die." the white-lie slipped past Annie's lips far easier than she was comfortable with. In all honesty, she had no idea if Jackson would die or not, but she was well aware that she was in no position to promise life to anyone.

As Annie and Eugene slowly carried the stretcher towards the stairs, an explosion hit nearby, shaking the foundation of the building and sprinkling dust and other small debris down on them. Crouching down, the medics put Jackson on the floor to wait for the attack to pass.

Jackson was crying by then, but in a drastic turn of events, his face turned beet-red and he started to convulse. His eyes screwed shut as he started gagging. Annie moved to the boy's side and held his head in her hands. "I'm gonna die!" he sputtered before a bone-chilling gurgling sound erupted from his throat. 

"Jackson!" Annie tried to hold him as still as possible, but with one final gasp, the boy fell still, his eyes rolling back as his head lolled to the side. Annie watched as his Adam's apple bobbed one final time, swallowing the blood in his mouth and throat before all bodily functions ceased. 

He was dead.

Annie sat back on her haunches and looked up at the rest of the men. Everyone was still, almost as still as Jackson. She didn't have to say anything. The sickening silence in the dingy basement spoke louder than words ever could. 

With a defeated sigh, Martin grabbed a blanket from one of the men and draped it over Jackson's body. 

Annie closed her eyes for a moment, drawing in deep breaths and composing herself before returning once more to reality. When the deafening silence subsided, the blonde medic picked up on the soft, barely audible mumblings of Babe Heffron, who was oblivious to the situation at hand. Every ounce of his attention was on Margot.

Standing up, Annie dusted her uniform off and made her way over to the counter. Now wasn't the time to slack-off; she couldn't lose two lives in one night. She couldn't lose Margot.

Eugene joined Annie, and in perfect teamwork, the medics worked on Margot. Compared to Jackson, the woman's injuries were minor, but she had still suffered some pretty bad wounds. While Annie checked the rest of her friend's body for any hidden lacerations or punctures, Eugene tended to the shrapnel cuts, some of which were pretty deep.

For a split second, Eugene had worried that the machine-gunner had sustained the same type of wound as Jackson due to the amount of blood in her mouth, but he soon realized that the culprit was a few pieces of shrapnel that had pierced clean through her cheek. Mouth wounds bled a lot, but usually, they were nothing to worry about.

"See, I told ya you were gonna be just fine." Babe smiled down at Margot, his puffy, dark eyes portraying the worry that had plagued him for what had felt like hours on end. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to ya. Bill and Joe would kill me if I did. They'd escape from the hospital and hop here on one leg just to slap me upside the head a couple hundred times."

The corner's of Margot's mouth curled into a faint smile; the sight bringing a wave of relief over the redheaded man. 

As the Cajun medic moved his way up Margot's face, he spotted something that worried him. Right beside her left eye was a puncture much deeper than he liked. It seemed to expand just past the bone and into the eye socket, and upon further inspection, he could see blood by the corner of her eyeball. 

Eugene cleared his throat slightly. "Margot," he spoke to her, gaining her attention. "Can you look at me a moment."

Slowly, Margot turned her head and stared back at the medic. Eugene inspected the right eye, and then the left. They seemed to be the same, but he had to check just in case. Raising one hand, Eugene placed it over Margot's right eye. "Margot, can you see me?"

Babe and Annie watched on, confused at first, but growing more and more concerned as the time passed by. Had a piece of shrapnel lodged itself in Margot's eyes? Had her eyesight been affected? Was she blind in one eye?

Margot blinked a few times, the seconds in between each one seeming to drag on. "Yes," she answered plainly. 

Eugene exhaled with relief, as did Babe and Annie. "Okay, good girl." Eugene smiled sweetly. "In that case, I'd say you're gonna be just fine. You are going to need some stitches though, so we should probably send you to the-"

"No." Margot waved her hand at Eugene and turned her body toward Babe. "No hospital."

Eugene and Annie shared a look. Annie had been down this road with Margot before, and by God she wasn't about to do it again. "Margot." Annie placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "Remember what you said about not going to the hospital last time being a foolish idea? Remember how much pain you were in for weeks? We don't have to stay there long, just a quick visit to get you some stitches. I'll even come with you."

"No." Margot refused once more, her hand grabbing at the fabric of Babe's jacket for security. 

Eugene sighed before trying his hand at the persuasion game. "Margot, the hospital isn't going to kill you."

"No!" Margot peered up at Babe, her eyes locking with his as she let out a single sob. "Please, don't make me go." she pleaded with the man who had kept her safe thus far. "The stories...what Bill and Joe told me...I can't go. I  _won't_  go."

Babe froze. His head filled with flashbacks of Foy, of when Margot lost herself completely in her fear and broke down. He was seeing that now, or at least, the beginning of that. The flash of terror in her eyes was enough to make him want to punch the two medics out, even though he never would. They were only trying to help, and deep down he knew that. 

Annie sensed the tension rising and tried her best to ease her friend's worries. "Margot, please, just-"

"Damnit, she said no!" Babe snapped out of nowhere, startling both Annie and Eugene as his arms wrapped tighter around Margot. "She said no," he repeated, this time calmer and more rational. "She'll be okay without stitches. She'll be okay."

"Babe-" Annie started.

"I'll stay with her." Babe offered. "I'll watch her. She'll be okay."

Defeated, Annie turned to Eugene and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Let him stay with her." she had been drained of all the fight she had left in her for one evening. "I'll clean up the wounds as best I can."

Eugene's eye shifted from Margot to Babe to Annie. "Okay." he reluctantly agreed. "Call me if you need a hand, yeah?"

"I will." Annie nodded.

After Eugene left, Annie pulled up a chair and worked silently on Margot's face, being as careful as she could with each gash while still making sure to be as thorough as possible. As the minutes passed, Margot slowly started to emerge from behind her mental wall, and before long, she was back to her normal self.

Babe was thrilled to see his partner back, and as the raven-haired girl moved from his arms to sit beside him, the two started talking as if nothing had ever happened. Annie, on the other hand, was growing more and more irritated by the incessant chattering. She tried to search her heart for the love she had for Margot, but at that moment all she could find was anger. Anger and resentment. 

The woman was gradually becoming more and more reckless. Throwing herself in front of grenades, refusing to go to the hospital, mentally checking out completely. She was becoming not only a danger to herself but to the rest of the company as well. 

"I'm done," Annie stated, standing up and gathering her things without another word.

Margot could sense the stress in the smaller girl, but she had no idea just how deep the outrage ran. "Thank you." she smiled.

"Yeah."

Jumping down off of the counter, Margot and Babe followed Annie upstairs to where some of the men were lounging in the bunk beds and enjoying hot cups of coffee. By then, the sun had risen and it was the next morning. Everyone had heard about the patrol. Everyone had heard about Jackson.

Crossing the threshold first, Annie made a beeline for the pot of coffee and poured herself a mug. She needed something to take the edge off, and since she didn't drink or smoke, coffee was the next best thing.

When Margot entered the room, the men couldn't help but stare at her face. Malarkey's conscience filled with guilt as he took in the sight of his fellow platoon leader. He felt bad for deciding to stay back. He couldn't help but tell himself that he should have offered to go instead. 

"Babe told me I'm still as beautiful as ever." Margot flashed a smirk as she recalled the words her partner had spoke to her back when she had been lying on the floor of the Kraut building. "So, you guys looking at me like I'm some kind of monster does nothing to my self-esteem."

"You look tough." Malarkey took note of the dried blood on the collar of her ODs. 

Margot chuckled a little, the feeling of being herself again filling her with the hope she had briefly lost throughout the night. "Next time I'll be sure to get the other side then." she joked. "Even it out."

Annie slammed her mug down hard on the table, the hot liquid spilling over the sides a little. She couldn't take it anymore. The laughing, the joking, the small talk. How could they all just stand there and pretend like a man hadn't just died hours ago? How could  _she_  stand there and pretend like  _she_  hadn't just died hours ago? 

"Enough!" the small medic blurted out, the outburst surprising even her. The room dropped into a state of eerie silence, heads turning toward the upset girl. "How can you laugh off the death of a man?  _A man_..." she scoffed. "He was twenty years old! He was a boy! He was one of us!"

Margot was taken aback by the raw emotion seeping from her friend. Usually, the small blonde kept her feelings inside, just like everyone else. Usually, she was one to laugh off a hard time along with everyone else. Usually, she didn't yell unless she absolutely needed to. 

"Annie," Margot took a step forward, her hand held out to try and calm her. "Everything's okay. There's no need to-"

"You don't get to talk!" Annie jabbed her pointer finger toward the taller woman, her eyes narrowed and her eyebrows furrowed. "You don't get to tell me everything's okay when you go out of your way time and time again to put yourself at risk! You're a reckless mess and I'm tired of cleaning up after you. I'm tired of worrying about you."

The men's eyes flickered to Margot, waiting for her response. The woman was silent for a while, the tension thick in the air as she tried to process what was happening. Annie had never yelled at her before. Annie had never even been mad at her before, as far as she knew.

The lack of a reply made Annie even more furious, and before she could stop herself, she was yelling again. "You keep doing this, over and over again. You keep acting before thinking and then I'm left to put your broken pieces back together again. Well, you know what, I'm done! I'm done begging you to go to the hospital. I'm done watching you sit up all night in pain because you refuse to listen to me. I'm done feeling sick to my stomach worrying about you. I'm done! So, go ahead. Throw yourself in front of as many grenades as you want. It's not going to fix anything. It's not going to bring Bill or Joe back."

Annie regretting her final words as soon as they left her mouth, but it was too late to take them back. They had been said. They were out there for everyone in the room to hear.

Margot's breathing hitched and she swallowed hard. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, but she refused to shed even a single tear in front of the men. Spinning on her heel, the raven-haired woman stormed out of the room. Her footsteps could be heard on the creaky, wooden floorboards before the front door was thrown open and all trace of her was gone.

Annie could feel the eyes on her despite her gaze being averted. Grabbing her mug, she wrapped both of her small hands around it and turned to stand near the window, her back to the room of stunned troopers. 

Peering out the window, Annie caught sight of Margot as she marched down the street, her head hung low and her arms folded over her chest. Annie wished she could go back and redo everything. She hadn't meant what she had said, or at least, she hadn't meant for Margot to ever know she thought those things. 

From behind her, Annie heard Perconte clear his throat. "This is probably a bad time to mention that they want another patrol tonight, right?"


	47. Patrol After Patrol

Tucking her knees up into her chest, Annie wrapped her short, slender arms around them and hugged tightly. She, along with some of the other men, was sitting in yet another dark, dingy basement. The sun had risen, bringing with it a new day of war, but for many of the troopers who had yet to catch even a second of shut-eye in far too long, the days were beginning to blend together.

Annie couldn't remember the last time she had managed more than an hour or so of sleep at a time, but her lack of rest and rejuvenation was the last thing on her mind right then. The blonde medic kept replaying over and over again the things she had said to Margot; the horrible things. There was no denying that what came flying out of her mouth in that moment of raw emotion held partial truth. Annie believed that if she had just stuck to her feelings, she and Margot might have had a shot at making up.

But Annie didn't keep the screaming topic about her feelings; she just _had_  to go and bring up Bill and Joe. Annie hadn't meant to mention the one thing she knew Margot was still extremely sensitive about, but she had, and now everything was messed up.

It had been hours since Annie had seen Margot, and to be frank, she was positive that if it were up to the raven-hair woman, it would be another few hours yet before she was given the opportunity to explain herself and apologize. 

Joe Liebgott was standing on the other side of the basement, his eyes watching the small girl carefully as her face twisted with regret. She was obviously battling with herself mentally, and the strife on her face brought him...discomfort? He wasn't sure why but seeing the medic so upset was doing little for his own happiness.

Joe had been there for the verbal, one-sided altercation between the two Easy Company women, and just like the rest of the men, he had been pretty blindsided by it. Save a few small mishaps here and there, Margot and Annie were usually thick as thieves. It was widely believed that their bond with each other was what got them through many rough days of training and war itself, so seeing them hold such animosity toward each other was, if anything, slightly unnerving. 

Cradling his warm tin mug of coffee, Joe pushed himself off of the wall he had been leaning against and wandered over to the girl. He didn't say anything, but when he sat down beside Annie and offered her a sip of his steaming beverage, the medic knew he was there with good intentions.

"Thank you." Annie smiled weakly as she took a small sip of the drink before handing it back. 

"She'll come around." Joe's voice was low so as to make sure the entire cramped basement couldn't listen in on their conversation. "She's just having a rough time. Margot's strong enough to not let a few words get to her."

Annie winced slightly as her statements flashed through her mind once more. "They were really harsh words...I should never have said them."

"You probably shouldn't have." Joe shrugged. "But what's done is done. All you can do now is move on and try to make amends."

Annie nodded as her head tilted up to look at Joe. "You know, you really are a wise and kind man when you decide to drop the tough facade."

"Who said it was a facade?"

"Okay, Joe." Annie patted him gently on the knee. "I'll keep pretending that you don't have a heart somewhere behind all of that hard exterior."

Joe smirked. "I'd appreciate it."

Shaking her head slightly, Annie opened her mouth to say something else, but before she could, Cobb decided it was the perfect time to pick a fight. "Whatcha looking at, Webster?" Cobb slurred, his speech and mental functioning clearly altered by the contents of the bottle in his hand. 

Webster, who had simply been caught in a thousand-mile stare as he thought about one thing or the other, blinked a few times in response to his name being mentioned. With wide eyes and a hung open mouth, Webster just looked back at Cobb. 

"Yeah, that's what I thought, college boy," Cobb smirked as if he won the non-existent dispute. 

The basement went silent, all eyes turning to look at either Cobb or Webster. Annie simply rolled her eyes. She was much too exhausted, both mentally and physically, to deal with Cobb's constant bullshit at the moment. 

Turning around in his seat, Jones eyed the drunk man who was leaning against the brick wall for support. "Are you drunk, trooper?" he decided to call out the instigator, saving Annie from having to do it herself.

"Leave me alone," Cobb grumbled. Annie, for the life of her, couldn't understand how a man who did so little fighting could hold so much animosity toward the war and his fellow Paratroopers.

Jones, however, was not backing down. "Answer the question," he demanded.

"Yes, sir, I am drunk, sir," Cobb told the truth, his eyes red and slightly watery. "Drunk. Sick and tired of fucking patrols, taking orders..."

Sighing, Martin turned around as well to put an end to the complaining. "Hey, Cobb, shut up. It's boring, okay?"

Cobb nodded as his gaze shifted to the Sergeant. "Taking his side, Johnny?"

"Yeah, I am." Martin spun back around, his back to Cobb. 

Once again, the room was engulfed in a blanket of silence. Annie glared up at Cobb, whose face was a mixture of different emotions; most of them overdramatized due to the alcohol. Joe could see the annoyance spreading over the girl's features, so he gave her a little nudge with his shoulder to draw her attention away from the infuriating drunk trooper.

"Just leave him be," Joe warned.

"I will." Annie sighed. "I've done enough for one day already."

"Ten-hut!" Martin's voice echoed through the small basement.

Jumping to their feet, Joe and Annie joined the rest of the men in standing at attention for the arrival of Winters, Nixon, and Speirs. What the blonde wasn't expecting, however, was to see Margot trailing behind the officers. The machine-gunner's face held no clues as to what state of mind she was in, but the way her arms crossed tightly over her chest indicated that she wasn't in the mood for any talking except for what pertained to the second patrol for that evening.

Margot's eyes passed over Annie quickly as she moved to stand beside Martin. It took everything she had not to let her gaze linger on the female medic, but she wasn't ready to forgive and forget so easily. Annie's words might have slipped out of her mouth, but they came from her head, which meant she had meant them one way or the other.

"At ease." Winters walked to the front of the room and removed his helmet. "You men, and woman, did an excellent job last night. I'm proud. I just saw Colonel Skink, he's proud too. In fact, he's so proud he wants you to do another patrol across the river tonight."

The words burned in Margot's ears as she ran her fingertips lightly over the still fresh wounds on her face. The thought of going back across that river terrified her to no end, but if another patrol was what regiment wanted, another patrol they would get. 

Winters spotted the unease on his trooper's faces. With a loud exhale, he looked down at his watch and observed the small hand for a few seconds. "Any moment now, the outpost we hit last night will go up in flames. Martin, Margot?"

Both Martin and Margot nodded, indicating that the timed explosives had indeed been set. "Yes, sir."

"It means we'd have to venture farther into town this time." Winter looked to Speirs as he handed over the map. "We have enemy movement here, and here. Which means this is our new house target here. We recovered all the boats, so we'll be setting off from the same place we did last night."

Martin furrowed his brows. "We're not changing the plan any, sir?"

"No, plan is the same." Winters fully realized how ridiculous the words sounded as they came out of his mouth. "It will be 0200 hours instead of 0100. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

Winters' eyes drifted from the map as he stood up straight. "Okay. Good, because, uh...I want you all to get a full night's sleep tonight."

Margot, along with the rest of the patrol group, did a mental double-take. How on earth were they supposed to get a full night's sleep if they were set to go across the river at 0200? 

"Which means, in the morning, you will report to me you made it across the river into German lines, but were unable to secure any live prisoners." Winters made sure he was making himself very clear. "Understand?"

"Yes, sir." the collective response was much less confident that time.

"Good." Winters folded up the map. "Look sharp for tomorrow. We're moving off the line."

As the officers climbed back up the stairs and out of the basement, eyes began darting around the room. Quizzical looks were thrown about as the troopers speechlessly asked each other if they had understood what Winters had said correctly.

"Did I fucking hear that right?" Liebgott looked at Annie as the room burst out into happy chatter. Not only did Easy Company not have to risk another patrol, but they would be moving off the line in less than twenty-four hours. 

Annie forced a small smile in response to Joe's enthusiasm, but her brown irises were locked onto Margot. The black-haired woman was staring back at her, but Annie had no indication if she was still mad or not. 

As Annie stood up from the old picnic table she was seated at, Margot sensed the coming confrontation and turned to head back up the stairs. "Margot!" Annie called after her friend, but the woman in front of her didn't stop. 

Every time Annie called her name, Margot could feel her blood boil just a little bit more. Had the smaller girl no sense to give her some space after the things she had said? Margot hoped that if she continued to ignore the medic, she would go away, but there was no such luck.

"Margot, wait!" Annie caught up as the two exited the house and stepped out onto the street. "Margot, please, let me say I'm sorry."

As Annie's hand grabbed Margot's arm, Margot whipped around and ripped her jacket out of the girl's grip. "Stop it, Annie!" she hissed, her voice low as to not attract any unwanted attention but her tone stern and commanding. "I don't want to hear your apology. Not yet."

"Please, just let me explain then." Annie's eyes scanned the ground nervously as her fingers tapped against her thigh. "What I said...I-I didn't mean-"

"Yes, you did." Margot cut the other woman off. "I could see it in your eyes. I could see the relief on your face as the truth finally slipped from your lips. If you think I'm reckless, that's fine. You can think what you want about me, I don't care. Maybe I did some stupid things, sure, but never once did I put myself in harm's way for  _anything_  other than the well being of my fellow Paratroopers; and for you to suggest otherwise — for you to suggest I did it because I was angry at the world for taking Bill and Joe away from me — is frankly insulting. I thought you knew me better than that, Annie. I really did." 

Annie's mouth opened, but no words came out. "I-" she started, but her voice faded away when she realized she had nothing to respond with. 

Margot glanced around to make sure no one was watching before she leaned in. "I don't have to tell you this, but losing Bill and Joe did hurt me, okay? Is that what you want from me? To admit that I'm weak and that I miss them? Because I do. I miss Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye every single fucking day they're not here. Maybe I'm alone on this one, but I don't think that possessing human emotions makes me any less of a soldier than anyone else."

Without so much as another sound, Margot turned and stomped off again. Annie was left speechless where she stood in the middle of the street, and it wasn't because what Margot has said was untrue; in fact, it was the exact opposite. Margot was  _right_. Annie should have known better than to imply such a cowardly thing from the strongest person she had ever met. Annie should have known better.

●●● 

By sunrise the next morning, the trucks were already being loaded up with bags of gear and men themselves. Everyone was beyond thrilled to head somewhere a little more comfortable. Overnight, Lipton had been given an honourable discharge as an enlisted man, Jones had been promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and Winters had been promoted to Major. Easy Company, like usual, was seeing vast changes to its ranking and staffing. Just like that, with Jones being sent off to regiment, another platoon leader had been lost.

Jones said his goodbyes to the men he had only known for a short period of time, making sure to thank Margot and Martin for taking him under their wing during the patrol and to Malarkey for giving him the opportunity to gain some experience under his belt. 

Margot was more than pleased to see the young man moving on up the ranks. At first, she had been wary of him, but even in her dazed and injured state the night of the patrol, she had noticed him take charge more than once when it came to Jackson and the POWs. She and the rest of the company owed a lot of the success of that mission to him. 

As Margot climbed up into the back of the nearest truck, Annie watched her from her spot in between Luz and Liebgott. With Hagenau disappearing into the distance as the trunks rumbled along the bumpy roads, Annie felt as if she were leaving something important behind. Her friendship with Margot maybe? 

She sincerely hoped that her ignorant words hadn't cost her the best friend she had ever had, but if they had, she was willing to work as hard as she needed to in order to regain the machine-gunner's trust. 

"You're a million miles away." Luz's voice was soft in her ear, but still somehow managed to startle her. "What are you thinking about?"

Annie shook her head as if to shake out the nagging thoughts in the back of her mind. "Oh, nothing," she answered, the look on George's face telling her that he wasn't convinced. "What, you wanna know what I'm really thinking about?" she inquired.

George nodded. "I  _did_  ask."

"I'm thinking about how you still owe me a damn Hershey bar." she reminded him. "Don't think I'm gonna let you get away with devaluing one of my precious kisses by only coughing up one chocolate bar." 

George patted himself down and shrugged when he came up empty-handed. "I promise I'll get you one as soon as possible."

"Yeah, sure." Annie rolled her eyes. "You know, Liebgott would never do me dirty like this, would you Joe?"

Joe pretended that he hadn't been paying attention but in all honesty, he had been hanging onto every word out of the girl's mouth. She had kissed George Luz in return for candy? Was the kiss on the cheek? On the mouth? How long had it lasted? Had there been a connection?

In the midst of the swirling questions in his head, Joe spaced out for real. Annie watched him for a few seconds, a small smile darting across her mouth at the way his concentrated expression made him look so harmless and innocent — the very opposite of his actual personality. 

George's lips stretched into a tight line. If candy bars were what it took to win precious Annie Winslow over and snag her from out under Joe's feet then he would buy shiploads full of chocolate for the girl. He couldn't lose the most beautiful woman he had ever met to another man, let alone the likes of Joe Liebgott. 

Liebgott was far too bitter for Annie's sweet nature. Annie was milk chocolate and Joe was dark chocolate. George liked to think of himself as white chocolate; you're not sure how you feel about it at first, but usually, you end up loving it. 

Dark chocolate on the other hand? No one in their right mind would choose dark chocolate over white.


	48. Wind Behind the Rain

Annie hummed to herself softly as she walked up the winding dirt road toward the farmhouse in the distance. Speirs had asked the medic to retrieve Luz and Perconte, who had set out an hour or so ago to collect — or more correctly, steal — some eggs. Annie had gone with the two men before, so she knew exactly where to look for them.

Sturzelberg, Germany, which was where the company was currently located, was a rather beautiful location; and the fact that the men and women had beds, warm food, and showers didn't hurt either. All in all, it was a quaint little place to spend some time off the front line.

Spotting the door to the coop open, Annie poked her head inside and located Perconte standing on a crate with a chicken in his hands. "Hello, Frank." Annie greeted as she looked around for the second man. "Where's George? I'm supposed to tell you guys to get your asses back to camp. Speirs' words, not mine." 

Frank struggled with the squirming, angry chicken in his hands. "He, ugh...he went after a girl." he held the bird at an arm's length away from himself. "Could you help me here?"

Annie snorted to herself at the sight of the small Italian man trying to keep the fussy animal from slipping from his hands. "Sure." she agreed as she climbed up onto the crate with him and snatched the eggs from inside the straw nest. As soon as Annie had collected the white, oval objects, Frank practically tossed the chicken back into its little cubby-hole. 

Holding out his helmet, Frank gestured for Annie to put the eggs inside. "You better give one of those to me when you cook them up." she chuckled as she stepped back down from the crate. 

"At this rate, you can have all the ones George was gonna eat," Frank grumbled as he began to count his loot. "Leaving me alone with a pissed off chicken...who does that to a friend?"

"George Luz does, apparently." Annie patted Frank on the back. "Now, come on. We gotta find that radioman and get back before Speirs decides he wants a side of medic with his eggs."

As soon as the two exited the chicken coop, they could hear George's voice from the next building over, the main barn. Rolling her eyes, Annie could only imagine what kind of nonsense he was getting into with whatever woman he had stumbled across. 

With a faint moo, the cows alerted the German woman and George as to the presence of the two new bodies in the barn. "George, we gotta-" Annie started, but paused when she saw the look on the poor woman's face. Every signal the beautiful, blond farm girl was giving off screamed that she was uncomfortable with how hard George was pushing for her to talk to him. 

George held an outstretched hand with a pack of cigarettes toward her, but every time he stepped forward, she stepped back. Her eyes were wide, her arms were tucked close to her body, and her lips were pressed together tight. 

As soon as the woman spotted Annie, she seemed to relax a little. "George!" Annie walked over, stood between George and the woman, and slapped the smokes of out his hand. "Can't you see you're upsetting her?"

George stood there stunned. Not only had he been caught red-handed trying to woo another woman by the very woman he wanted more than anything, but he was also being reprimanded for it. "I-I..." he stuttered. "I was just trying to-"

"We all know what you were 'just trying to do'." Annie sighed as she turned to the German farm girl. "I'm sorry." she apologized, her voice soothing in an attempt to calm her down. She was almost positive the woman had no idea what she was saying, but she hoped her gentle gestures would relay the message. "We're gonna go. Have a nice day."

The woman smiled slightly and nodded. "Danke." her tense body seemed to relax a little.

Turning back to George, Annie planted her hands on his shoulders, spun him around, and pushed him out of the barn. "Come on you two." she waved for Frank to follow. "I swear, I feel like a goddamn Sheppard with you men. Always having to round you up."

Once outside, Annie took the lead and started back down the road. On the way, a jeep rolled past with Nixon in the passenger seat. He was wearing his harness and looked pretty disgruntled, so the sight left Annie wondering about what had happened to him and pushed the thought of George and the German woman out of her head altogether.

George, however, was sure he would be mentally kicking himself all day because of it. "Nice one, stud." Frank teased his friend, knowing full well how much he fancied the blonde medic. 

"Shut up, Frank." George huffed as he kicked at a rock with his boot.

"No, I'm serious." Frank adjusted the helmet full of eggs in his arms. "Women love nothing more than when you actively seek out other women." 

George shot Frank a death glare. "I'm serious. Shut the hell up." he snapped before making sure Annie was far enough ahead to not hear them. "I mean...I'm getting desperate here man. I'm doing everything I can and I'm pretty sure she still has no idea I even like her."

"That's probably because she's a little preoccupied with this little thing called war." Frank shrugged, his smart-ass remark earning yet another glare. "Besides, she's too wrapped up in trying to get Margot to speak to her again right now. If you really want to confess your undying love for her, maybe wait until the war is over, everyone is still alive, and she isn't knee deep in work all the time."

George nodded as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"I know I'm right," Frank stated. "Although, I would try to make a move sooner rather than later or Liebgott is gonna wrap his skinny little chicken arm around your girl and ride off into the sunset with her." 

"Frank-" George warned.

"What?" Frank questioned. "You know it's true. You can't tell me you don't see how much time she spends talking to him. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he already has her wrapped around his finger. You love Annie, Joe loves Annie, Annie knows nothing, and you both hate each other. It's really quite entertaining to watch. Some of us have a bet on who's she's gonna choose in the end."

George's eyes lit up. "What?"

"Yeah." Frank placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "You wouldn't like the odds if I told you."

"You're a terrible friend, Frank." George slapped Frank's hand off of him.

Frank smirked. "You left me alone with the chicken. We're even."

●●● 

Later on in the day, around noon, Nixon had gathered up the company so he could read the weekly newsletter to them and fill them in on any new and important news that they needed to be aware of. 

Annie, who by that point had completely forgotten about the morning incident with the German woman, was sitting beside George and participating in a small game of cards that some of the men had started up. 

Margot was sitting a few seats away with Babe and Malarkey, her feet up on the empty chair in front of her and her arms crossed behind her head, enjoying the sun. She didn't even bother to glance in Annie's direction. She figured that when she was ready to talk things out, she would know it; and thus far, she didn't feel like talking things out yet.

"'The cooperative for American remittance for Europe, or CARE, has begun assembling food packages stateside to assist those European families in dire need.' Which is presumably all of them." Nixon's voice was monotone as he read from the clipboard in his hands. "So, ugh, notes home to your families reminding them to donate whatever they can, would be much appreciated. I'm sure that you'll all be happy to know 'Oklahoma's' still playing on Broadway."

The merry bunch let out a small cheer. " _Oklahoma..._ " George started off the well-known show tune, carrying out the notes as he waited for the rest of the group to join in.

Annie smiled wide as she participated in the Easy Company rendition of the song. " _...where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, and the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes-_ "

George swiped his hand through the air to signal everyone to stop singing. " _-right behind the rain!_ " O'Keefe, one of the newer guys, finished off the verse on his own; his voice high and feminine. 

The men and women broke out into laughter. "O'Keefe, were you sitting on your bayonet there?" Christenson joked, earning more snorts and chuckles from the men. "Why don't you leave the singing to Luz?"

"No kidding." Margot chortled. "Coulda sworn I was the one singing for a second there."

"Hey, unless you wanna do like, 'Surrey with the Fringe on Top', O'Keefe," George suggested.

Annie tried to hide the smile that kept poking through her indifferent expression. "You guys are so mean."

"Yeah, you wouldn't know anything about that." Margot scoffed, her retort just loud enough for the blonde to hear.

Nixon, who was oblivious to the snide comments, turned to the next point on his list. "Oh, Rita Hayworth's getting married."

"Oh, Rita, say it isn't true," George mumbled through the cigarette between his lips. 

"Oh, don't worry Luz, you've still got Annie." Talbert piped up from somewhere among the crowd. 

More laughter erupted, but this time, the radioman was not a part of it; neither was Annie herself, or Joe Liebgott. "I don't know what you're talking about, Floyd." George took a puff from his smoke to calm his rising nerves.

"Wartime news." Nixon cleared his throat to gain the attention of the Paratroopers back. "Resistance in the Rhur pocket's crumbling, it looks like there might be a breakout in Remagen. Apparently, the Krauts forgot to blow up one of their bridges when they headed back over the line. I guess the boys in the 17th Airborne did okay after all."

"Ah, forget it, we'd be in Berlin by now, sir, if it was us instead of them, huh?" George said in an attempt to make everyone forget about the comment Talbert had made. However, he had no such luck.

As the meeting came to a close and the men started to disperse, Annie turned to George. "What was Floyd talking about?" she inquired.

"Ugh..." George had no idea what to say. "Nothing, nothing...he was just messing around. It's a little inside joke, is all."

Margot snorted as she passed by and overheard the conversation. "How long do you really think you can keep up the facade?" she stopped beside the table they were sitting at and looked down at the blonde medic. Her eyes met with Annie's, then George's, then Joe's. The men were silently pleading with her not to say a goddamn word, and although she knew she would find great joy in making them squirm, she decided against it at the last minute. "Ah, you know what, nevermind." she waved her hand and sauntered away. 

"Facade?" Annie was thoroughly confused at that point. "What is going on here?"

"Don't worry about it." Joe eyed George as he stood up. "Come on, kid. Let's go find some food."

Annie thought about the words for a few seconds more before sighing and standing up. "Yeah, okay." she nodded and pushed back her chair. "See you later, George."

Annie had no idea what the three Easy troopers were going on about, but whatever it was, it was important enough to get Margot to speak in her direction without it being a rude jab at her. 

The female medic tried her best to push the thoughts from her head throughout the day, but every hour or so, when she least expected it, they would pop back up and leave her with about a million more questions. 

By the time night had fallen, Annie was still none-the-wiser about the knowledge that George, Joe, Margot, Talbert, and God knows who else shared. Thankfully, she received something to take her mind off of it. For the first time in months, Annie had gotten a letter from home. With being in Bastogne, and then on the move so much after, trying to send and receive letters had been next to impossible, but now that the company was stationed in a civilized town, mail was coming and going by the boxloads.

With about four letters, some of which dated back to before Christmas, Annie located a nice spot by a windowsill and sat down so she could read through what had been going on at home since she had last heard from her family. With the rain tapping against the glass of the windowpane, Annie tore open the first letter and got to reading.

Annie found herself smiling, laughing, shaking her head, and even crying at the things that her parents and siblings had written to her. Like always, there was worry laced between their words, but there was also love and a sense of pride there as well. Annie learned that her little brother Timothy had moved on from soldiers and was now in a superhero phase, that her sister Julia had won an award at a small, local art show for children, and that her older brother Philip had found a new job in a factory that paid well and made him happy. 

After finishing the last letter, Annie hugged the paper to her chest and exhaled. She wanted nothing more than to sit down at the table for one of her family's famous Sunday dinners and just  _be_  with them again. The large gap in between getting their letters had allowed the girl to distance herself from the pain that was missing home, but now that the feelings had all come flooding back at once, she could barely contain her emotions. 

Hearing a faint knock, Annie looked up and saw George standing in the doorway. "Oh, hello." she smiled and wiped away the tears that had collected in her eyes. "What's up?"

"Just came to ask you the same thing." George walked into the small room and sat down beside the girl. "You doing okay? You look like you've been crying."

Annie let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Just reading some letters from home."

George gasped and feigned hurt. "You read letters from home without me?"

"I'm sorry." Annie rolled her eyes playfully. "I forgot you were an honorary member of the Winslow household."

"Damn right you forgot." George nodded. "So, what's happening back in New Haven? Anything interesting?"

Annie thought back through the overwhelming amount of information she had just gained from the combined four letters. "Nothing too exciting..." Annie's tongue stuck out from the corner of her mouth as she thought. "Oh, wait." she grabbed the second to last letter. "In this one, my brother mentions that Steve got a new girlfriend already. That's something I guess. He sure moved on fast...so much for soulmates, huh?"

"Who needs Stan?" George huffed.

"Steve."

"Isn't that what I said?"

Annie laughed as she pulled out the first letter. "Mom says Timothy is having a Batman phase. No more pretending to be the great radioman, George Luz."

"Eh, who can blame him?" George shrugged. "Batman's way cooler anyway."

"That's what I thought." Annie looked to George out of the corner of her eye and smirked.

"Hey, it's only okay when I say it. You're supposed to say that Batman has nothing on me."

"You want me to lie?"

"Antonia Winslow!" George's mouth fell open, the cigarette hanging from his bottom lip almost dropping into his lap. "It's one thing to say mean things to Margot, but to me?" he knew he hit a nerve right away when the girl's face fell. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry. I was only joking around."

Annie forced a smile. "I know. It's okay, George." she sighed, her thoughts trailing off for a moment. "George?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to tell me what Margot and Floyd were going on about today?"

"I'd rather not."

"Why?"

George plucked the cigarette from his mouth and put it out on the wooden floorboards beside himself. "It's really not something that you need to worry about. It's...complicated."

"Oh, for Christ's sake, George." Annie rested her head against the wall. "You not telling me is making it  _more_  complicated."

"I promise I'll tell you when the time is right." George rested a hand on Annie's knee. "And when do I not follow through with my promises?"

Annie chuckled to herself. "I don't know...you  _promised_  me two chocolate bars for one kiss and I'm still waiting on the second one, so I don't know if I can accept your promise."

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?"

"Nope."

"What if I made it up to you in another way?"

Annie furrowed her brows and tilted her head like a confused puppy. "And how are you going to do that."

Leaning over without warning, George placed a kiss onto Annie's cheek. Annie's eyes widened and she turned to face the radioman beside her. "George!" she gasped, followed by an adorable little giggle. "What on Earth was that?"

"We're even now." he tried to play off the kiss as if it was no big deal despite the fact that his heart was slamming against his ribcage. "You can't complain about that second chocolate bar anymore."

Annie's eyes drifted down to her hands as she began gathering up her letters. "You are one cheeky little radioman, George Luz. You know that?"

"I know." George smiled to himself as he watched the raindrops slide down the window in uneven and unpredictable patterns. "It's all part of the package."

"You are going to make some woman very happy someday," Annie commented without realizing how much her words affected the man beside her. George didn't just want  _'some woman'_ , he wanted sweet, kind, strong, and beautiful Antonia Winslow from New Haven, Connecticut. 

"I hope so." was all George replied with. 


	49. Gory, Gory

With the mail having finally arrived that day, many men and women spent the night going over piles of letters that they had been waiting for during the past few months. Everywhere you looked there was at least one trooper huddled up in a corner with a paper in his hands and his eyes moving back and forth across the page rapidly. 

Margot was almost positive that somewhere, Annie was reading through what was probably a stack of letters from home. The blonde medic's family never failed to send something every few weeks or so, whether there was news to tell or not. 

Margot had gotten used to tuning out the sound of Vest calling out names when he was handing out envelopes and packages. Since leaving home she hadn't gotten a single piece of mail and as days passed she was sure the likelihood of her ever receiving some was only dwindling. That was until she sauntered past the building that Vest had set himself up in that evening, her head low as she tried to avoid getting soaked by the rain.

"Sergeant Kessler!" Vest called her name, but the machine-gunner was too focused on getting somewhere dry to hear him. "Margot!" he tried again, but nothing.

Darting around the counter and out into the rain, Vest caught up with the woman and tapped her on the shoulder. "Sergeant Kessler." he smiled as he pulled out a single envelope from underneath his jacket — an attempt to keep the mail dry. "This came for you."

Margot looked down at the letter and then back up at Vest. "It can't be!" she had to raise her voice as the water began to fall harder from the sky. "I don't get letters! Haven't gotten a single one since this whole war started!"

"Well, there's a first time for everything." Vest flipped the envelope over and pointed to the writing on it. "Look, your name, right there. It's for you."

Confused, Margot took the letter and tucked it away safely into her jacket pocket. "Thank you." was all she could think to say before turning and heading toward her billet for the evening. 

After entering the confines of the dry and subsequently warmer building, Margot shed her damp jacket and hung it up to dry — not before plucking the envelope back out of the pocket, however. She turned the white paper over in her hands and examined the writing. There was no return address, no sender name, no indication of who it was from. All that there was was her name scribbled onto it.

Letting out a confused sigh, Margot sat down at the nearest table and set the mystery mail down in front of her. She tried for the life of her to figure out who it might be from before opening it. At first, she thought maybe her dad, but no, the writing didn't look like his. She went through a couple more people — mostly acquaintances from back home — but after five minutes she was still none the wiser. 

Finally, after the curiosity got the better of her, Margot ripped open the envelope and unfolded the paper inside. Her eyes scanned the writing for a second before she began to read. It wasn't until she was about a paragraph in that she realized who it was from.

 

_Dear Margot,_

_Bet this letter is a slight surprise since you never get any mail, but in a way, it kind of makes me feel special for being the first one to write to you. I was planning on writing sooner — really, I was — but every time I sat down to do it my head just went blank. I have so many things I want to say to you and yet I can't think of a single word. So, I guess I'll just pretend like you're right here with me and talk to you...you always were a great listener._

_Bill and I are doing okay. We're both half a leg down and still sitting in this damn hospital, but to tell you the truth, it's not so bad here now that I actually have someone to talk to (even though I wish it were you instead of Bill — not that I wish you had gotten your leg blown off too...you know what I mean). Bill does a pretty good job at keeping me from losing my mind though. Sometimes the days just blend together and before I know it a week has passed and I don't feel like I've done anything with myself. Weirdly enough, sometimes I wish I were back on the front lines with you and the rest of the guys._

_The nurses try their best to give us updates with what's going on, and although I always ask to hear the news, I always regret it afterward. Every time some 'unnamed' soldier is reported to have been killed I always worry it's you. I hope you're not dead. I hope you're reading this. I hope you're okay. I hope everyone is okay._

_I had to practically fight Bill to be the one to write the first letter to you, but I just couldn't wait another few weeks to be able to put down in writing that I miss you. God, I miss you like crazy every single day. A part of me hopes you miss me too, but another part knows you're doing just fine without me. You're too strong to miss me as much as I miss you._

_Bill misses you too, of course, but not like I do. Bill also wanted me to tell you to look after Babe for him. He's worried about that skinny little redhead. Just make sure he doesn't get his finger caught in the tripod again and all should be well._

_Even though I still have a million things I wish I could say to you, writing them down in my messy handwriting won't do them any justice, so I'll just have to tell you them when you come to get your dog tags back after the war. I still have them. I wear them around my neck every day. Won't even let the nurses take them off when I'm forced to be sponge-bathed like some old, pathetic man._

_Bill will probably be writing the next letter to you, so be prepared to receive some long, jumbled mess of words in the coming weeks. He's got a lot to say and he's already said it all to me and every single nurse in this place so you're next up on the chopping block._

_Do me a favour; if you're still alive, stay that way for me, please._

_Give those Kraut Bastards hell!_

_\- Joe Toye & Bill Guarnere_

 

By the time she reached the end and read the names that confirmed who the letter was from, Margot's face was soaked from tears. The paper in her hands had wet spots and she was forced to push it aside to save the ink from bleeding. She wanted to keep that letter with her so she could reread it over and over again, so she had to make sure it was still legible. 

In the dark, mostly empty room she was sitting in, Margot broke down into sobs. She had heard Joe's voice in her head while she had read the letter and for a split second near the end, it had felt like he had been right there beside her. Margot had thought she had sorted out her feelings about Joe and Bill, but apparently, she hadn't. Just reading their names brought every single emotion known to man back to her and then some. 

Wiping her eyes haphazardly, Margot scanned the letter again. She picked up on the tone of the words in front of her, almost as if Joe half expected that the letter would never be read at all; almost as if Joe half expected that she was dead. 

Over and over again Margot read the letter until she knew the whole thing by heart. Once she did, she folded the paper up gently, tucked it into her pocket, located an old couch to sack out on for the night, and closed her eyes; the words of the letter playing on repeat on her head.

●●● 

The next morning, the news that three-hundred thousand Krauts had surrendered was spreading through the platoons like wildfire. Within half an hour of the initial announcement, every American soldier knew about the surrender, and by God, every single American soldier was thrilled.

Following the uplifting news, Easy Company was told it would be heading out. Unsurprised by the order to pack up, Margot had her things together and loaded onto the nearest truck within minutes. By then, every man and woman was used to gathering up everything they owned and being ready to move out within five minutes or less.

While waiting for further instructions, Margot shared parts of the letter she had received the night before with Babe and Malarkey. Babe was rather offended that Bill thought he needed to be looked after while both Malarkey and Margot found it hilarious.

Of course, there were parts of the note she kept to herself; parts that she was sure only needed to be seen by her eyes and Joe's. 

Word was that Easy was heading to the Alps but in all honesty, no one ever really believed where they were going until they got there. Annie had been there when Speirs had told them firsthand, but even then she didn't get her hopes up. "The Alps?" Bull questioned. "That near Berlin?"

"No. That's in Bavaria." Webster piped up. "Birthplace of National Socialism."

Annie shared an amused looked with George. At least wherever they were going they would have Webster and his useless facts. 

"So that means no drop into Berlin?" George asked as he tossed a baseball between his hands; somehow managing to have found both a baseball  _and_  a baseball glove. 

"No drop into Berlin," Speirs confirmed. "Hitler ordered the Waffen SS into the mountains to repel invaders. He wants to start a guerrilla war."

Bull chuckled as he adjusted the rifle strap on his shoulder. "Invaders. Damn, l like the sound of that."

Turning to the truck, George climbed up into the back before reaching down to offer Annie a hand up. "Thanks." Annie smiled as she accepted his hand before settling down in between him and Liebgott. 

While the blonde medic was bent over tying up her shoelace, she missed the many looks that flashed around the back of the truck; all of which were directed at her, George, and Liebgott. Somehow, the girl was still the only one in Easy Company that wasn't aware of the love triangle she was trapped in.

As the engines started up and the convoy of trucks and tanks took off, one of the familiar and comforting traveling songs did as well. At first, Annie hadn't sung along and rather enjoyed the passing scenery, but as the song repeated for about the fifteenth time and yet another line of trees passed by, she found herself belting out the lyrics along with everyone else.

_"Gory, gory, what a hell'uva way to die. Gory, gory, what a hell'uva way to die. Gory, gory, what a hell'uva way to die. He ain't gonna jump no more. The risers swung around his neck, connectors cracked his dome. Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones. The canopy became his shroud; he hurtled to the ground. He ain't gonna jump no more."_

Despite the gruesome nature of the song, it was one of the few things that really lifted the spirits of the troopers. When even the grumpiest of the bunch, like Johnny Martin, was singing along happily, you knew that something must be working. 

Eventually, the song died out and one by one the men divulged into separate conversations with their comrades. Men had moved around a bit, some now standing, others sitting on the railings. Annie was still beside George but Liebgott had moved to the opposite bench beside Webster. 

"It's gonna be good times, Web." Liebgott turned to Webster and struck up a conversation, which was a tad odd since it was pretty well known that the two men rarely got along. "When we get home, I mean. First thing I'm gonna do is get my job back at the cab company in Frisco. Make a killing off all those fucking sailors coming home, you know? Then I'm gonna find me a nice Jewish girl with great big soft titties and a smile to die for. Marry her. Then I'm gonna buy a big house with lots of bedrooms for all the little Liebgotts we're gonna be making. She ought to like that."

Annie chuckled as she listened in on Joe's life plan. "That's one hell of a plan there, Joe," she smirked across from him. "However, you're forgetting one big caveat. You have to survive the war first."

Joe scrunched up his face at the girl. " _You have to survive the war first_." he mocked her. "I've made it this far, haven't I?"

Annie held her hands up in defense. "All I'm saying is, everyone's alive until they aren't."

Joe rolled his eyes at the girl who was half listening to him and Webster's conversation and half listening to George and Janovek talk about an article that so boldly stated that the Germans were bad. Between the four men, Annie was giggling at the bizarre exchanges left and right.

"Yeah, well, what about you?" Joe turned the spotlight to Annie. "What are you going to do when you get home?"

Annie grinned wide and leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees. "I have no idea." 

Webster scoffed as he looked up from whatever it was he was eating out of his small mug. "Come on, you must have thought about it a little."

"Well, in the broad scheme of things I'm sure I'll find somewhere to settle down. Get a job. Find a man. All that very boring stuff." Annie shrugged. "But as for  _as soon_  as I get home? Who knows. Maybe I'll do some traveling. Maybe I'll pick up some new hobbies. I, unlike some of you, am just focusing on one thing at a time right now, and at the current moment, that one thing is staying alive and making sure you all do the same."

"So very noble of you," Joe smirked, a playful glimmer in his eyes before he turned back to Webster. "What about you, Web?"

Webster sighed. "Guess I'll finish school first and then, ugh-"

"Wait a minute." Joe cut him off. "Finish school? You mean all this time you've been talking about Harvard this and Harvard that and you ain't even finished?"

"For one thing, I haven't told you anything." Webster retorted. "But yes, yes, I haven't finished. So the fuck what?"

Annie let out a laugh. "You've hit a nerve, Joe. Back off or he's gonna throw you off of this moving rust-bucket." 

"Alright, Web, breathe a little, Jesus. Fuck." Joe diffused the situation with his not-so-charming way with words. "It's just the way you always talked, you know? We all figured that-" Joe trailed off when he noticed the death-stare Webster was giving him. "Hey, you know what, you're right. So the fuck what?"

"Well, I for one, think going back to school sounds like a really good idea." Annie butted her way into the conversation yet again. "In fact, it's such a good idea, I'm going to add it to my list of potential post-war activities."

Webster smiled softly at the medic. "Thank you, Annie."

"You're welcome." Annie returned the smile. "So what did you study?"

"Literature."

Joe's eyes lit up. "Get out of here. You serious? I love to read."

"Do you?" Webster humored Joe's statement. 

"Yeah." Joe nodded as he fished a cigarette out of his pocket. "Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, mostly."

"Oh, so you're a real connoisseur of the classics, are you?" Annie teased a little, knowing full well she could get away with it when it came to Joe. Webster, she wasn't so sure about. 

Joining the conversation, George rested his arm on the back of the truck behind Annie and tossed the baseball up and down in his other hand. "What's Joe a connoisseur of?"

"Big-breasted Jewish woman," Annie answered him, earning a few chuckles from some of the men sitting close. "And comic books."

"Wow, Joe, you're a real catch." George cackled at the man opposite him. "Any chance you'd trade up a busty Jew girl for a simple man from Rhode Island like me?"

Joe's eyebrows furrowed as he took a long drag from his cigarette. "Not a chance," he grumbled, the smoke spilling from his lips as he spoke. 

George smirked at Joe before turning to the girl beside him. "Say, Annie, you're not Jewish, are you?"

Annie shooked her head. "No, why?"

"No reason." George's eyes flickered to Joe to make sure he heard the girl's answer. "Just curious is all. I mean, I've planted my lips on you and I feel like I still don't know that much about you."

Joe could tell exactly what George was doing, but nevertheless, it still made his blood boil. This was the second time he had heard about the two of them kissing, and although he was pretty sure neither of them was serious or real, he still didn't like it. He didn't like hearing about someone else — especially George Luz — spending time with the sweet Medic.

Joe had hoped his story about finding a pretty Jewish girl back home to settle down with would throw some of the men off of the scent of his continuing infatuation with the blonde girl, but somehow, it seemed to have worked a little  _too_  well. 

Annie sighed and patted George softly on the cheek. "There isn't a whole lot to know about me, Georgie. You want to know the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life? This. This war is the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life. I'm boring."

"Nah, you're not boring." George dropped his arm down from the truck and snaked it over Annie's shoulders, his eyes never leaving Joe for a second. "I think you're plenty interesting."


	50. When the Birds Stop Singing

With the sound of a frantic woman shouting echoing throughout the building, Margot made her way up the first flight of stairs and into the small apartment of one of the German residences that she and the rest of Easy had been ordered to clear out. 

"Tell her she's got five minutes," Speirs ordered to anyone within the company that was able to speak German. 

The woman, who looked maybe only a few years older than Margot herself, stood her ground between the soldiers and her young son. She wasn't backing down, and although Margot had no idea what she was saying, it was obvious from her body language and tone that she was very upset.

How could she not be? A hoard of American Paratroopers had just barged into her home and ordered her to leave. Anyone would be on edge when faced with a situation like that.

Liebgott groaned slightly as he began trying to persuade the woman to leave, but no matter how many times he repeated the same thing over and over again, she was not giving in. "Sir, she says she's got nowhere to go." Liebgott translated.

Running his hands through his hair in frustration, Speirs groaned. "We're only gonna be here one night," he yelled at the mother. "You've got four minutes!"

The woman backed up even more, her thigh now pressing into the chair that her son was sitting in. Her eyes darted between Liebgott, who was still speaking in German, and Margot, who was standing a few feet back and watching the whole thing go down. Her hands moved to grab hold of her son as she silently pleaded with the fellow female to help her. 

Throwing her rifle over her shoulder, Margot stepped between the male Paratrooper and the German mother. "Okay, let's just take it easy here, okay." she placed a hand on Liebgott's chest and pushed him back a little. "Joe, explain to her one more time — nicely — that she just has to find somewhere for tonight and that we will be gone by morning. Tell her I will watch her son while she packs."

Liebgott rolled his eyes before complying, his voice gentler and less authoritative this time around. Slowly, the woman seemed to calm down. With a slow, cautious nod, she grabbed Margot's arm and directed her to stand next to her son before turning and taking off to pack up a few things as quickly as she could. 

"I know it may be hard to believe," Margot looked down at the boy and flashed a comforting smile, "But not everyone in Germany in a Nazi. Just...try to remember that."

With a huff, Liebgott stomped off, presumably to go yell at some more residents and get all of that ever-lasting pent up anger out. Never before had Margot seen such a skinny man hold so much rage inside of him so consistently. To be completely honest, she had no idea what Annie saw in him that made her want to be his friend. 

After another minute or so, the woman came out of her bedroom with a full bag slung over her shoulder. With a curt nod, she grabbed her son's hand and dragged him past Margot and out of the apartment where she and rest of the tenants were pushed down the stairs and out of the building. 

Margot watched as family after family hurried out of their homes, panic on their faces as they worried about where to go and what was going to happen to them. Fishing a cigarette out of her pocket, Margot placed it between her lips and lit it with a single flick of her lighter.

Ever since she had received her letter from Joe and Bill she had been trying to work out what to write back. Like Joe, she had so many things she wanted to say, but nothing seemed to make sense when she put it down on paper. Margot wanted to vent to them — to tell them all the horrible things she had endured since she had last seen them — but she also didn't want to burden them with her problems; they had enough of their own as it was.

With a long inhale of the nicotine, Margot decided that she would not include evicting innocent families from their homes in her letter. Joe and Bill didn't need to hear about that.

After staying the night in the newly vacant apartments, Easy Company was out again bright and early the next morning, just like they said they would be. Packed into trucks like sardines in a can, the troopers moved from city to city, passing by hoards of retreating German soldiers on the way.

As the trucks, tanks, jeeps and other American artillery moved inward, the median between the two streets was full of Germans moving in the opposite direction. With her elbows resting on her knees, Annie watched as the uniformed enemy marched as one, their heads still high with pride even in surrender.

It was an almost menacing sound — the rhythmic stomping of their boots on the dirt; and if it weren't for the current circumstances, Annie was sure the noise would send chills down her spine. 

"Hey, you!" Webster suddenly shouted as they passed the enemy soldiers. Rising to his feet, he grabbed hold of the bar above his head and glared into the sea of Krauts. "Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Kraut bastards! That's right! Say hello to Ford and General fucking Motors. You stupid fascist pigs! Look at you! You have horses! What were you thinking?!"

Reaching up, Garcia grabbed hold up Webster's jacket and pulled him back down into his seat. "That's enough, Webster," he told him. "Give it a rest."

Burying his face in his hands, Webster sat back and let out an exasperated sigh. "He's right." Annie pulled one of her bargaining packs of cigarettes out of her pocket and offered one to the wound-up man. "Yelling at 'em isn't gonna make a difference."

Webster shook his head in polite refusal. "Dragging our asses halfway around the world. Interrupting our lives-" he suddenly jumped back to his feet again. "-for what?! You ignorant, servile scum! What the fuck are we doing here?!"

"Webster, sit down and shut up or I'm gonna report you as deranged and have you sent to a loonie house." Annie huffed as she leaned back, her head resting on George's knee as he sat above her on the edge of the truck, his legs on either side of her body. 

Reaching down, George gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. Everyone in the company was going through some form of emotional episode one way or another due to the sudden shift with the mass surrenders. Some, however, hid it just a little bit better than others.

As the vehicles rumbled past an old, abandoned looking shed of some kind, the steel door burst open followed by a sudden string of tempered shouting — both English and German. Looking up, Annie watched as two American soldiers led three German soldiers out into the open before kneeling them down and shooting them in the back of their heads.

Funnily enough, Annie didn't even flinch when the gun went off and the first German collapsed onto the ground; a stream of blood erupting from his skull in the process. Across from her, Liebgott, and George however, O'Keefe had the look of a baby deer caught in headlights. 

With a sly smirk, Liebgott tossed the ball George had had earlier in his hand. As horrible as it was to say, there was a small amount of amusement that the seasoned troopers got out of watching the new guys experience the glory of war for the first time. Their first night in a rained-out foxhole, their first time firing their weapon in combat, their first time watching someone die. 

Over time though, they would get used to it. They always did. 

As the convoy rolled into the next small town, a place called Thalem, some of the locals came out into the streets to watch the Americans' arrival. It was hard to tell if their actions were ones of welcoming and good faith or not, but nevertheless, they seemed willing to accept that there was a new force in charge.

When the trucks slowed to a stop, the men and woman jumped out of the backs and the orders from the superiors began. Within minutes, Speirs had ordered groups from Easy Company to go on a patrol in the North-West woods. First and second would be going straight through while third was to swing around and meet up on the other side.

With the small pack convened, including both Annie and Margot, they headed out into the woods with rifles in hand and heads on a swivel. 

The sun was shining down bright and hot that day, but thankfully, the canopy of trees provided much-needed shelter from the heat. In Bastogne, the uniforms hadn't been enough to keep them warm, and now, the uniforms were too much to allow them to stay cool. In the end, there was no winning with the weather; but then again, no one ever said being a Paratrooper was going to be comfortable.

Letting out a slight cough as she walked through the smoke cloud from George's cigarette, Annie waved her hand in front of her face to dissipate the grey fog. "George, could you maybe not exhale right in my direction?" she shot him a look from out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, you mean like this?" George turned to her and blew a puff of smoke directly into her face. 

"I'm gonna kill you, George Luz." Annie deadpanned.

While the medic and the radioman began to bicker quietly between themselves, Margot and Bull were bringing up the rear, their eyes glued to the nervous replacement in front of them. From the moment they had entered the woods, O'Keefe had been gripping his rifle so hard that Margot could see his knuckles growing whiter by the second.

Taking off his helmet and adjusting the cigar in the corner of his mouth, Bull shot Margot a grin before tapping the man on the shoulder. With a flinch, O'Keefe's head spun around faster than an owl looking for prey. "Sarge." he breathed when he saw it was only Bull.

Both Bull and Margot let out a small chuckle. "Why the hell you so jumpy, boy?" Bull questioned. 

"I'm not jumpy." O'Keefe denied.

"Weird, because for a second there, I could have sworn you were part frog." Margot teased. 

"Shit, she's right." Bull nodded in agreement. "I can hear your heart pounding in Arkansas, boy."

With a snicker from the front of the group, Christenson turned around. "Jesus Christ, will you two give the kid a break?"

"You getting soft on me, Pat?" Margot narrowed her eyes at the man.

"You wish."

For a few seconds, the group fell silent, the only sounds coming from the forest itself and from Perconte chewing whatever it was he was eating. "Hey, George." Frank's eyes scanned the scenery around him. "Kind of remind you of Bastogne?"

Annie let out a snort as she caught the look of pure annoyance on George's face. "Yeah, now that you mention it." George sighed as he overtook Frank and looked around. "Except, of course, there's no snow, we got warm grub in our bellies, and the trees aren't fucking exploding from Kraut artillery; but yeah, Frank, other than that it's a lot like Bastogne."

"Right?" Frank somehow managed to miss the sarcasm in George's voice.

"Bull, smack him for me please." George took another drag of his smoke.

Happily obliging George's request, Bull reached forward and smacked Frank on his helmet, a smile on his face the whole time. 

"Thank you."

Eventually, after what felt like hours of walking, the patrol slowly began to near the edge of the woods. The foliage had grown thicker, decreasing the amount of sunlight shining down and darkening the surroundings. The birds had stopped chirping and even the slight breeze had stopped. 

Suddenly, everything had gotten rather eerie.

"Sure is quiet." O'Keefe was the first to comment on the noticeable change in ambiance.

Frank nodded as the men and woman formed a circle, their backs to each other and their eyes scanning the trees. "He is right, fellas."

"It's the birds." Annie tilted her head back to look up at the higher branches of the trees. "They've either stopped singing or they've left altogether."

For a few more seconds the group stood in place, surveying their surroundings and listening for any little sound. Christenson was the first to switch off the safety on his rifle, one by one followed by everyone else. 

Then, in a more organized formation and a more serious mental attitude, they started walking again. 

When the patrol first exited the woods and proceeded into the clearing, they weren't sure what they were looking at at first. Whatever it was, it was big and it was man made. 

Slowly, the troopers fell into line beside one another, their eyes glued to the sight in front of them. Towers, wooden posts, gates, barbed wire, fencing. No one spoke a word; not even a single sound.

Annie narrowed her eyes as her hand went for her small pistol, her breathing deliberate and her heart slamming against her chest. It took her a while to figure out what she was looking at, but when she finally put the whole picture together, she felt as if she might throw up right then and there.

"Are those...people?" Margot swallowed hard, the words coming out of her own mouth making her feel sick to her stomach as well. 

"Oh, my God." Annie's shoulders slumped in defeat for the good of humanity. "It's a cage. It's a goddamn human cage."


	51. The Unwanted

With the sound of Perconte's fast-paced footsteps growing quieter and quieter as he sprinted back through the forest to inform Battalion of what the patrol had found, the remaining members of the group stood frozen in place. 

The more Annie analyzed what was in front of her, the worse it got. She blinked hard a few times, trying to make sure what she was seeing was actually real — she desperately hoped it wasn't, but it was. It was very real. 

There was really no other way to describe it besides what Annie had originally stated; it was a human cage. Tall wooden posts stood sturdy, holding up large sheets of barbed-wire fence. In each of the four corners of the enclosure stood a massive tower; the really alarming thing being that the towers were facing inward instead of outward, like a prison.

It was hard to see all the way to the back because of the thick smoke that hung low, but it was easy to tell that it was no small pen. 

When the first of the people inside approached the fence, Annie breathing hitched. When more stepped forward, she felt as if she couldn't breathe at all. Each and every one of the prisoners was dressed in the same black and white striped outfit. 

Never before had Annie — or anyone, for that matter — seen something quite like it. Never before had they smelt something quite like it either. The stench was enough to make your eyes water and your stomach turn. 

There was only one way to describe how it smelt; it smelt of death. Old, rotting, death. 

About half an hour later, Frank returned with the rest of Easy Company and then some. As the jeeps and trucks pulled into the clearing, more and more of the stripe-clade people stumbled toward the edge of the confines; their fingers snaking through the fence and clinging to it for dear life even though the barbs dug into their skin and drew blood.

As Winters exited the first jeep and began to step closer to the spectacle, he had to take a moment to compose himself; possibly because of the withering away deceased body in between the two fences, or possibly because of the putrid smell. Probably, because of both. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Annie forced herself to walk up to the Major. As the smell grew bolder and the sight grew grimmer, she threw her hand over her face to cover her mouth and nose. "Sir," she mumbled as she gave Winters a nod. 

"Sergeant Winslow." Winters returned the greeting, his eyes wide and his face twisted in a way that made it look like he had just eaten a whole lemon.

As the rest of Easy filed out of the trucks and gathered near the large front gates, there wasn't a single word spoken between anyone. Everyone was much too busy trying to comprehend what they were seeing to be able to form a coherent sentence.

Walking up, Margot grabbed hold of the first set of gates and helped Perconte pull them open. Taking slow, cautious steps forward, Winters surveyed the prisoners in front of them. They were all bone-thin, they were all covered in filth, they were all dressed head to toe in stripes with a yellow star stitched onto their shirts, their heads had all been shaved, and they were all men. 

"Open it up." Winters gave the order.

Pulling out the bolt cutters that one of the men had brought with them, Perconte stepped up to the second set of gates — the ones that were chained shut — and cut them open. As soon as the final barrier between the prisoners and the soldiers was removed, the men on the inside began to swarm their rescuers.

Margot and Annie, along with the officers, Perconte, and the rest of the medics, were among the first to venture into the enclosure. Reaching out, the terrified and dead-quiet men grabbed onto the troopers' uniforms, their thin fingers hanging on for dear life. They didn't say much of anything, but the look of pure agony in their eyes spoke more than words ever could.

"Christenson, any of your men speak German?" Winters asked.

Christenson shook his head. "Liebgott speaks German." Annie piped up, her eyes never leaving the horde of malnourished people in front of her. 

Turning around, Lipton headed back to the trucks to retrieve Liebgott. "Alright boys," Lipton announced as he made his way back through the crowd with Liebgott. "These people need care. Give them water and any spare rations you might have. Grab some blankets."

Sensing a presence beside her, Annie looked up to see Margot standing to her right. Meeting her gaze, Margot shared a look of complete and utter disturbance with the blonde medic. At that moment, there wasn't time to worry about their little dispute. There was only their job, and their job always came first.

"Oh, my God," Nixon exclaimed as he wandered even further into the compound. 

Peering into the distance, Margot had to take a second to let herself fully piece together what she was looking at. As the smoke began to dissipate and the view became clearer, it was easier to see just how far back the barbed-wire prison really went. A wide path stretched down the middle of the plot and on either side sat long, narrow buildings that were dug into the ground.

Out of the buildings, man after man stumbled, each one looking worse than the last. Some of the poor souls were so skinny and underfed that they couldn't even walk, so they had to resort to crawling, being carried, or just sitting there and pleading with their eyes. 

Bodies littered the small, shallow ditches that lined the path. Some were fresh, others had been there for quite a while. 

At this point, it was clear where the smoke had come from. Some of the buildings had been burnt to the ground, a few of them even still on fire. 

For every single man and woman of Easy company, that was the single most atrocious, gut-wrenching, debilitating sight they had seen throughout their entire time as a US Paratrooper. 

Ripping her eyes from the ground and forcing herself to look up at the horrors in front of her, Annie almost jumped back when a man approached her from seemingly out of nowhere, a withering body in his arms. The body he was carrying was so thin that Annie could count each and every single one of its ribs from meters away and its skin was pale as snow. 

The man began to speak to Annie, and although she had no idea what he was saying, she was able to get a sense purely based on what she was witnessing right then and there. 

"I-I'm sorry." Annie shook her head. "I'm sorry."

The man collapsed to his knees in front of the small girl and began to cry. Walking up beside her, Shifty and Grant placed comforting hands on the medic's shoulders before taking over for her. Reaching into his bag, Chuck pulled out some water and offered it to the man. 

Turning around, Annie shook her head in an attempt to shake out the horrendous thoughts and images and headed back over to where Winters, Nixon, Speirs, and Liebgott were questioning one of the men. 

The female medic wanted nothing more than to be useful, but she was having a hard time finding a way to pull herself together and focus on the task at hand. Every time she saw another new face or another fresh body, she felt as if she was never going to be the same again; which, in all honesty, she probably wasn't.

No one would.

Falling into place beside Liebgott, Annie gripped hard onto her medic bag and drew in a few deep, slow breaths. The prisoner in front of Liebgott was in the middle of explaining something when she arrived, but just like the officers, she didn't speak a lick of German.

"He said the guards left this morning, sir." Joe began to translate. "They burned some of the huts first, with the prisoners still in them, sir. Alive."

Nixon ran a hand over his face and let out a loud exhale. "Jesus Christ."

The man ran his hand nervously over his bald head as he spoke, his eyes flickering back and forth from paranoia in the process. "Some of the prisoners tried to stop them." Joe continued. "Some of them were killed. They didn't have enough ammo for all the prisoners so they killed as many as they could before they left the camp. They locked the gates behind them and headed South."

Nixon nodded and turned to look at Winters. "Someone in town must have told them we were coming."

"Yeah, I think so." Joe agreed.

Winters was quiet for a few seconds, the gears inside his head almost visibly turning as he thought. "Will you ask him what kind of camp this is?" it was obvious by his facial expression that he was uncomfortable with the words coming out of his own mouth. "Ugh, why are they here?"

Joe nodded and relayed the questions to the man in German. The man seemed confused at first, his hand sliding down to scratch the back of his neck with uncertainty. Eventually, he responded. 

"He says it's a war camp for, ugh..." Joe struggled to find the right word to use in the translation. "...I'm not sure what the word means, sir. Ugh, unwanted? Disliked, maybe?"

"Criminals?" Speirs suggested.

"I don't think criminals, sir." Joe shrugged but asked the man anyway just to clarify.

The man shook his head almost immediately. "Nein," he said, which was one of the few words Annie could understand. "Nein."

"No," Joe told the others as the man in front of him began to explain further. "Doctors, musicians, tailors, clerks, farmers, intellectuals. I mean, normal people."

Then the man said a single word that seemed to strike a nerve with Liebgott. He repeated it a few times as the officers and Annie looked to Joe for the translation. Swallowing hard, Joe sighed. "Jews." he breathed. "Poles and Gypsies."

Turning to the side, the man pointed in a direction through the woods as he described something else. Then, out of nowhere, he broke down into tears and wandered away. 

"Joe?" Annie looked up at the man beside her.

"The women's camp is at the next railroad stop." Joe shifted his weight from one foot to the other. 

The man's desperate cries echoed through the camp, sending chills through Annie's entire body. Pulling her helmet from her head with one quick swoop, the medic ran her shaking hand through her hair and tried with every fiber of her being to hold back the tears that were bursting at the seams of her eyes. 

As she closed her eyes and hung her head, she felt a hand grab hold of hers. Annie didn't have to open her eyes to know it was Joe, but she did it anyway purely because she needed that confirmation to make her feel better. When Annie looked down at her hand safely tucked away in Joe's, he gave a reassuring squeeze. 

While the two of them stood there for a few moments to just process everything, Margot was making her way around with Malarkey and Babe, taking note of as much as she could. As the group of three walked past burning huts and piles of discarded, dead bodies, the only thing running through Margot's head was how glad she was that Joe and Bill weren't there to see that.

Yet another thing she would not be including in her letter. Yet another thing she would have to keep to herself. 

Like cattle, the men had numbers etched into their arms, leaving them as nothing more than a piece of property rather than a person. It was beyond disrespectful, beyond sickening, beyond horrible. It was _dehumanizing._

Inside the huts, the Jewish prisoners were damn near stacked on top of one another; stuffed into the small, dark structures like chickens on a farm. Most of them were sleeping or too weak to move, but some were dead. 

The men were forced to sleep among dead, rotting, decaying bodies.

Just off of the property, train cars were found that were full to the brim with more corpses; all in varying stages of decomposition. By that point, everyone had gotten used to the stench. By that point, nothing was surprising anymore. 

When the trucks with the food and water arrived, every able-bodied prisoner had stumbled out through the gates and into the clearing to gather around the soldiers who were handing out the goods.

Helping out the best she could, Margot participated in breaking off chunks of bread from the supply and handing them out to the starving men. No matter how hard they tried to get everyone to form a single line though, it was complete and utter chaos. It was almost sickening to watch the men shovel the small portions of food into their mouths before returning for more like begging dogs at the dinner table.

When an actual doctor finally arrived, the medics felt as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. The news he brought, however, did nothing of the sort. 

"We need to stop giving these men food right now." Dr. Kent stated plainly. "They're starving. We give them too much to eat too quickly, they'll eat themselves to death. We need to keep them in the camp until we can find a place for them in town."

Nixon's eyes widened. "You want us to lock these people back up?"

"We got no choice." Sink sighed as he folded his arms across his chest.

Dr. Kent nodded in agreement. "Otherwise they might scatter. We need to keep them centralized so we can supervise their food intake and medical treatment. So, until we find someplace better..."

"It's a crying ass shame, but let's get it done." Sink said before turning and heading back over to his jeep.

When Winters explained to Liebgott what needed to be done, Joe's face fell in a matter of seconds. "I can't tell them that, sir." 

"You got to, Joe." 

With a defeated expression, Joe turned and reluctantly climbed up into the back of one of the trucks. As the soldiers began to circle around the prisoners and lead them back toward the gates, Joe began to make the announcement. 

Almost immediately, everything dissolved into mayhem. The men began to panic as they realized they were being herded back into the enclosure and they started to call out, their pleas directed at Joe for they knew he was the only one present who could understand them.

Joe fought hard to hold himself together through his speech, but once it was over he collapsed onto the bench in the back of the truck and buried his head in his hands. Annie watched from a few feet away as his bottom lip quivered, and although he tried, he couldn't stop the tears from spilling from his eyes.

Pushing her way through the sea of people, Annie pulled herself up into the back of the truck — ripping her jacket out of the grip of many of the prisoners in the process — and went to Joe's aid. 

Annie didn't say anything, and neither did Joe, but as soon as she sat down beside him and wrapped her arms around him, he melted into her embrace and let the sobs flow between desperate breaths and rugged hiccups. 

"It's okay." Annie tried to soothe the pent up emotions she knew were spiraling inside of him — ones of anger, sadness, confusion, and guilt. "It's okay."


	52. Peace Again

Locking the Jewish men back up into the barbed-wire camp that had been their own personal hell for God knows how long was one of the hardest things the men and women and Easy Company had ever been forced to do. 

In their time during the war they had had to say goodbye to their loved ones, jump out of moving airplanes, kill people, and watch their friends die but somehow, none of it even began to compare to the guilty, horrible, gut-wrenching feelings they got when they herded the last man back behind the fence, pulled the gates shut, and locked them up again.

At that moment, it was like they were sentencing them to the cruel fate all over again; and no matter how many times they tried to get the message across that they would be coming back with more food, water, and medicine, it wasn't hard to miss that many of the men believed they were being left for dead.

When Margot approached Winters about the women's camp down the road she was told that they were being handled the same way, and although it pained her to think about women being left in the same condition as the men, she knew deep down that it was the safest, most effective way to deal with the situation.

A part of her wanted to go and see the women's camp for herself, but a bigger part knew that she wouldn't be able to handle it. She was trying to be strong, she was, but there was only so much one person could handle in a single day. 

Heading toward one of the trucks that would be taking the troopers back into town, Margot passed by George, who was in the process of looking for something or someone. "What you looking for?" she questioned.

"Have you seen Annie?" George returned her question with another question. "I just...I saw her earlier and she looked pretty shaken up. I just want to make sure she's alright is all."

"That's nice of you." Margot smiled softly and turned to point to the truck that had carried in the food and water. "I think she's still over there with Joe. He, ugh...he's having a rough time."

George's face fell when he spotted the blonde girl with her arms snaked around Joe's body. "Oh, thanks." he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "In that case, maybe I'll check back later then."

Margot chuckled. "Yeah, maybe that's a good idea."

As the machine-gunner and the radioman pulled themselves into the back of the truck, they settled into seats beside one another and waited for the rest of the men to load up. Margot watched out of the corner of her eye as George's leg bounced up and down and he chewed on his bottom lip in contemplation. It was obvious he had something — or more accurately,  _someone_  — on his mind.

"You gotta help me out here." George lowered his voice as he turned to face Margot. "It's killing me...I gotta know...does she like me at all? Does she talk about me? Is...is she gonna pick Liebgott?"

Margot let out a loud laugh. "Woah, slow down there buddy." she placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "First off, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the two of us aren't exactly on speaking terms right now; so, even if there was a development in her feelings for one of you, I wouldn't know it. Secondly, she can't really pick anyone when she isn't even aware she has a choice to make. And thirdly, how about you stop this childish game and  _just ask her already?_ It really is driving us all crazy and the bet amount is starting to get higher than I'm comfortable with."

"There you guys are with this goddamn bet again!" George threw his hands up into the air. "Why has everyone decided to take it upon themselves to find amusement in the fact that Joe and I may or may not be interested in the same woman."

"Because we're in the middle of a war and there's nothing else to do," Margot answered matter-of-factly. "Listen, George, you're a nice guy and Annie is a nice girl. Between you and me, I think the two of you make a better couple than she and Joe do. However, nothing is going to happen if you don't man up and ask her already. What, you can sit in the middle of a field with bullets flying past your head but you can't be an adult and ask someone if they like you or not?"

George groaned, his eyes drifting over Margot's shoulder toward Annie and Joe again. "It's not just a matter of 'liking me or not'. It's more than that."

"Then tell her."

"God, you're no help." George huffed as he folded his arms over his chest. 

"If you don't do it, I'm gonna tell her for you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I wouldn't?" Margot cocked a brow at the man beside her. "Try me, Luz."

Before the bickering could go any further, Christenson and some more of the men filled up the remaining spaces in the back of the truck and slowly, one by one, the vehicles pulled out of the clearing and away from the camp.

All the while, the prisoners called out after them, their voices tearing through their throats as they begged for the soldiers not to leave. Margot felt her stomach turn at the sound and wished, more than anything, that she could just assure them that they weren't going to be left to rot away in those huts.

When the company got back to town and began to question the locals more thoroughly they were told over and over again that they had had no idea about the camps and that the descriptions must be overexaggerations. 

It was bullshit, it had to be. Everyone knew it was bullshit. There was no way they hadn't smelt the stench. There was no way one of them hadn't stumbled upon it one way or another. There was no way they didn't know.

But yet, they insisted. Over and Over again. They insisted they had no idea.

There was a thick blanket that had been thrown over the moods of Easy Company that night. No one was able to shake the images they had witnessed that day from their heads and they knew that tomorrow would bring much of the same. No one met up to drink, and if one was seen drinking, it was probably because they were simply trying to forget.

As Margot headed down the street on her way to Battalion to find out why Winters had requested to meet with her, she wiped her nose with her sleeve and sniffled. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the smell of rotting and burning flesh to leave her. She was sure the scent had seeped so far into her uniform that she would be smelling the camp for days on her own person. 

Reaching the Battalion HQ building, Margot stepped inside and made her way to the office she knew was being occupied by Winters. When she knocked on the already open door, Winters' head popped up from where he was writing something at his desk and he promptly waved her in.

"Sergeant Kessler." Winters smiled lazily, the bags under his eyes giving away just how exhausted he really was. "Thank you for coming. Sorry for it being so late. I was going to have this conversation with you earlier but...well, with today's findings..."

"I understand, sir." Margot nodded and ventured further into the dimly lit office. "It's no trouble, really."

"Good, good." Winters pulled open one of his desk drawers and plucked something out. "I'm just going to get straight to the point. Colonel Sink has found it appropriate to promote you to Staff Sergeant, so these are your new chevrons."

Margot was taken aback by the sudden statement. "Oh, wow." she reached out and took the chevrons from the Major. "I mean, thank you, sir."

"There's no need to thank me," he assured her. "I know you've been having a rough time since Bastogne, but after your actions in Haguenau with leading that night patrol, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that you have earned it. Congratulations, Staff Sergeant Kessler."

"Thank you again, sir." Margot carefully tucked the new chevrons into her pocket so she could sew them on later. "Is that all, sir?"

Winters thought for a moment before clasping his hands together and sitting back in his seat. "I believe so, yes. You may go now."

"Okay." Margot headed for the doorway. "Goodnight, sir."

"Goodnight, Kessler."

With butterflies of happiness and excitement in her stomach, Margot nearly skipped her way back out of Battalion HQ. After the day — or rather, the days — she had had, this promotion was exactly the sort of pick-me-up she needed. Finally, Margot had something she could put in her letter to Bill and Joe.

After returning to the house where she was billeted along with Annie and few other guys, Margot decided that it was finally time for her to buck up and compose the damn letter already. She had tried a few times earlier, but just like before, every time she tried, her mind went blank. This time, however, as she sat down in her small bed and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen, the words just seemed to flow out of her. 

Margot wrote about everything she would have wanted to tell them if they were sitting right in front of her. She wrote about the evening spent in the church after Foy, she wrote about the convoy of trucks and how the men sang Blood On the Risers for nearly an hour straight, she wrote about the group sing-along to Oklahoma, and she wrote about her promotion. She wrote about the good things mostly. The bad things would always be there, mixed in between, but they could wait. 

By the time she had reached the end of her seemingly never-ending train of thought, Margot had filled two sheets of paper, double-sided, with her handwriting. She contemplated writing a second letter just for Joe, and for a brief moment she almost did, but then she decided against it. Margot knew there were things that needed to be said between her and Joe, but they were not things that could, or should, be said in a letter. So, she opted to hold on to her remaining words and seal the papers away in an envelope so she could drop it off with Vest in the morning. 

As the raven-haired woman got ready to call it a night, there was a faint, almost non-existent knock at her bedroom door. If she hadn't looked up and saw the body standing in her doorway, she was sure she would have missed her visitor altogether. 

"Hello." Annie smiled cautiously as she leaned against the doorframe. 

Margot was silent for a moment, unsure if she was ready to deal with the oncoming ordeal or not. "Hello." she returned the greeting. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah, actually." Annie rubbed her upper arm with her hand nervously. "Could you tell me what's going on with George and Joe? I can't handle the tension and the weirdness anymore."

For some reason, even though the request had nothing to do with an apology for what she had said, Margot smiled at Annie's continued confusion. Right there, at that moment, she decided she was done being angry. "Sure." Margot sat down on the edge of her bed and patted the spot next to her. "I'll tell you everything."

By the time Margot had finished explaining the situation to the blonde medic, Annie was wide-eyed and her mouth was hung open. Clearly, she was having a difficult time wrapping her head around the fact that she had gotten herself into a love triangle without even realizing it. 

"Okay, so let me get this straight." Annie sighed, the gears in her head working overtime. "So, both George and Joe...like me? And they have for a while now...and everyone knows except for me...and the whole company has a bet on it."

Margot patted her friend on the back. "I know it's a lot to take in, but yes. Yes, that's the gist of it." 

"I'm really oblivious, aren't I?" Annie couldn't do anything but laugh. 

Margot cracked up a little as well. "It's not your fault. There are more important things to worry about. I think we're all just a little surprised you didn't notice George at least...he was really not subtle about it."

"George is a nice guy," Annie stated. "I thought he was just being nice." 

"Well, he was... _really_  nice." Margot snickered. "That man is head over heels for you. Thank you for finally asking about it. I think a few of us were starting to lose hope in it actually ever going anywhere."

Annie was silent for a moment as she fiddled with her fingers. "So now I have to pick one?"

"You can." Margot shrugged. "Or you can just leave it alone and focus on your work like you have been doing. In all seriousness, if either of them is really invested in you, they will wait until after the war. But, you know...between you and me...who would you pick?"

Annie shook her head, a small smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. "I have no goddamn idea...I don't even know if I like either of them in that way. I'm gonna have to get over the shock of it all first I suppose."

"That's fair." Margot nodded.

Turning to the other woman, Annie flashed a mischevious smile. "So, while we're friends again and on this particular topic, are you ever going to tell me what really went on between you and Joe Toye?"

Margot tensed up at first, but after a while, she eventually started to spill everything to Annie. And just like that, the black-haired machine gunner and blonde medic were two peas in a pod again; acting as if the whole outburst in Haguenau never even happened. 

For the first time since Joe had left, Margot truly felt like she had someone she could talk to again, and man oh man did she have a lot to say. The two women, having missed out on a lot of time together due to the falling out, spent most of the night sitting up in bed and talking. For a little while, it felt like everything was back to normal again and they were just two housewives gossiping over some cheap wine. 

The next day, when the company returned to the camp, they were greeted by the sight of about a hundred townsfolk walking milling about. They had been ordered to help clean up the town and the camps, so whether they liked it or not, quite a few of them had the job of moving bodies; bodies of people who suffered right under their noses.

Finally, however, the camp had been rid of the prisoners, taking away its power of making Annie want to throw up every time she opened her eyes. Of course, it wasn't completely empty yet, but hopefully soon, after the bodies had been given proper burials, there could be peace again in one form or another. 

In the end, that was what everyone really wanted; peace.

Back in town, where more of the civilians were cleaning up the rubble piles of what once used to be buildings, Margot and Annie sat with some of the men in one of the rooms of a two-story building where the wall had been blown to bits, giving them a view of the people below. 

Children played among the destruction while men and women picked out treasured belongings from the ash while in turn salvaging all they could. Chairs, tables, cutlery, anything. 

In the middle of the hard-working individuals sat a four-person band consisting of all men, and while the people around them tried to restore the place they all loved dearly, they played sweet, soft music in an attempt to restore the good spirits of the people. 

As the sound of the three violins and single cello echoed through the air, Margot pulled a cigarette out of her pocket, placed it between her lips, and lit it. 

"I'll tell you one thing about the Krauts." George was the first to break the silence. "They sure clean up good."

"Yeah." Liebgott nodded. "All you need is a little Mozart."

"Beethoven." Nixon appeared behind the group. 

Turning to her superior officer, Annie cocked a brow. "Sir?"

"That's not Mozart," he commented on the music, correcting Liebgot's earlier statement. "That's Beethoven." 

"Oh," Annie noted before turning back to the sight before her. 

Silence engulfed the small gathering of troopers for a few more seconds before Nixon spoke up again. His words, as flat and deadpanned as they came out, reached something deep inside of everyone. "Hitler's dead." 

Joe was the first to respond. "Holy shit."

"Shot himself in Berlin." Nixon elaborated. 

"Is the war over, sir?" Bull asked what everyone was thinking. Would they finally be going home?

Nixon shook his head solemnly. "No. We have orders to Berchtesgaden and we're gonna head out in one hour."

"Why? The man's not home." Webster huffed as everyone started to grab their gear. "He should have killed himself three years ago. Saved us a lot of trouble."

"Yeah, he should've." Nixon agreed as he took one last look at the band in the middle of the street. "But he didn't." 


	53. The Eagle's Nest

Raising her hand into the sky in order to block the harsh sun rays from blaring down hard onto her face, Margot peered into the distance as Grant and Christenson stepped up toward the high pile of rubble blocking the mountainside road just outside of Berchtesgaden and got ready to fire yet another bazooka grenade into the obstruction. By that point, it was obvious that without some heavy-duty firepower, they would all be stuck right where they were; so the men had taken it upon themselves to have a little fun with their arsenal of explosives just for the hell of it. 

When Chuck fired his bazooka at the base of the rocks, a loud bang echoed through the air, followed by a rather loud cloud of dust that drifted into the sky before dissipating; but when the smoke and debris faded, it was clear to see that not even a dent had been made in what was the Nazi's final attempt at protecting their last stronghold.

"Excellent shot!" Margot called as she overheard Winters complaining about how the engineers were supposed to have arrived over half an hour ago. "If you look really closely, I think you chipped that boulder right there." she pointed at one of the larger rocks, a shit-eating grin on her face.

Annie let out a small giggle from her spot beside the woman as Speirs came marching toward the front of the parked convoy of army vehicles. "If you're looking for someone to find another way up that mountain, Easy Company is ready and willing," he informed Winters and Nixon; both of whom looked perfectly happy leaning against the hood of their truck and basking in the sun. 

"Duley noted." Winters nodded. "I already recommended you to Colonel Sink."

Speirs smiled, which was something he did not do often. "Terrific. Let's go find out where Hitler lived."

"Ron." Winters stopped the Easy Company leader before he could walk off. "We're not sure what's up there and the Colonel doesn't want us taking any unnecessary risks."

Speirs turned to look at the remainder of the winding road on the other side of the pile of rocks, dirt, and trees. "So the French are going to beat us to the Eagle's Nest?" he sighed, disappointment evident in his tone. 

Just then, as if on cue, Colonel Sink's jeep rolled up and came to a stop beside the officers. As Margot listened intently to the conversation between the higher-ups, Annie was busy watching as Webster retreated from the boulders after just laying down a pile of primed grenades. Once he was back within a safe distance, Chuck fired yet another bazooka round and the ground shook with the resulting explosion; this one larger and more intense than the last, but still doing very little to solve the problem at hand. 

By the time the men had stopped gushing over their display of dust and smoke, Colonel Sink had given the order to outflank the French and reach the Eagle's Nest first, which was an order every single trooper in 2nd Battalion was more than willing to comply with. 

With Easy Company in the lead, the Battalion headed out and took an alternate route up to the town of Berchtesgaden; a town famous for being home to many heads of the Third Reich — Hitler himself included.

With men on each side of the road, the company made their way through the town, eyes peeled and weapons at the ready for any hail-mary attempts made by the Germans. In the middle of the group, Nixon, Winters, and Welsh rode in on a jeep, their heads on a swivel as well as they inspected every last building they passed. 

As they came upon what looked like a massive hotel with larger-than-life red swastika banners hanging outside, Margot and Annie slowed a little and stared up at the huge symbol of hate. "Holy hell." Margot gawked at the sight before her, her eyes widening as they followed the banners up to the top of the building. 

"You could say that again." Bull's Southern drawl gave him away before he was even in sight. "This place is like a goddamn Nazi amusement park."

After making sure the town was, for the most part, Nazi-free, the men and women of Easy began to explore the various homes and shops, which of course came hand-in-hand with looting. Everywhere you looked, Paratroopers were shoving bits of silver into their pockets and bags, trying to fit as much as they could on their person so they could either keep it for themselves or send it back home to their families. 

While Annie could live without the looting — only really taking things that caught her eye like jewelry — Margot was participating in the lot of it. With no home to go back to after the war, the machine-gunner knew she could use all the help she could get; so, with plans to sell as much of the shiny items as possible, Margot filled her pockets as well.

However, the real treasure, everyone knew, was what hid away at the very top of the mountain in Hitler's Eagle's Nest. More had offered to go ask Winters if they could make the ascent, and when he returned with Speirs on his tail and the order of approval, the members of Easy Company that were mulling about dropped their gear and took off up the mountain road.

"HI-HO, SILVER!" Malarkey cheered as he dashed to the front of the pack, bringing back memories of running Currahee with Sobel hot on their heels. 

"CURRAHEE!" Liebgott shouted back from his spot on one of the trucks down below that was heading into the town. While the rest of Easy was just arriving, the early comers were darting up the dirt road toward what was sure to be the ultimate prize.

Stopping for a second to wave down at her friends, Annie stuck two fingers in her mouth and let out a loud, piercing whistle. The men below cheered some more, their hands in the air and smiles on their faces. "Come on!" Margot grabbed Annie by the sleeve and tugged her along. "We gotta go or Malarkey and Speirs are gonna get first dibs on all the cool stuff."

When the small group finally made it up the gold-plated elevator and pushed open the first set of doors, excitement was high but caution was even higher. Splitting up, the soldiers checked every room before finally letting their guard down and allowing themselves to fill with child-like wonder. 

The mountain top stone retreat was even more beautiful on the inside than the outside, and quite frankly, Annie was finding it hard to believe that such a horrible man owned such a breathtaking home. 

With the loud pop that came from Malarkey cracking open a bottle of champagne, Annie jumped a little, her hand over her heart as she turned around and watched as the redhead walked over to Speirs, the foaming bottle in his hands and a dead Nazi at his feet. "Here's to him." Malarkey gestured with the bottle before taking a sip of the alcohol. 

Stepping closer, Annie noticed the gun beside the dead body and the small patch of dried blood on the carpet. "He's been dead a while," she concluded out loud even though she wasn't really talking to anybody in particular.

"Mighty kind of him to take himself out instead of making us do it," Speirs muttered before spinning on his heel and sauntering off to presumably locate some more stuff to steal. 

For what was probably about half an hour or so, the seven troopers dug through as much of the pristine building as they could before more of the officers arrived. When they did, it didn't take long for Nixon to track down some booze, and with that, he, Speirs, and Welsh headed out onto the balcony where they wasted no time getting as drunk as possible. 

During the trek down from the Eagle's Nest, which took much longer than the journey up, Margot and Annie took their time admiring the scenery and commenting on how unbelievable it was that the weather was so nice when they could see snow-covered mountains looming over the town gracefully in the distance. 

"It's almost like a fairytale land." Annie chuckled, knowing full well that she sounded silly. "I mean, I never thought I would ever see a place like this except in my dreams. It's just so...beautiful."

Margot nodded as she took a swig of the single wine bottle she had managed to snag before Nixon hoarded them all. "It's nothing like I've ever seen, that's for sure. I would definitely live here if it wasn't...well, you know...crawling with Nazis."

"I think most of the Nazis are gone by now." Annie reminded her as she gestured to the land around them with her arms. 

"True." Margot shrugged. "But I have a sneaking suspicion they are like cockroaches; they will always find a way back. I bet once we leave they will all come scurrying back to the safety of their homes."

Annie kicked at a stone and shoved her hands in her pockets. "Well, at least if they do, we will have stolen most of their stuff already."

Margot laughed. "At least there's that."

On their continued way down the twisting dirt road, a jeep drove past heading in the opposite direction. From inside the vehicle, Winters and Lipton gave a nod to the two women as they crossed paths, their faces painted with huge, toothy grins. 

"Wonder what they're so happy about." Margot mused, her mind trying to wander back to the last time she had seen either one of the officers smile. 

The wondering didn't last long, however, because as soon as the women reached the bottom of the mountain and made their way back into the town, they were greeted with hordes of the happiest men they had ever seen in their lives. 

"Can you believe it?!" Babe ran over, picked Margot up, and swung her around. 

Margot let out a nervous laugh as she tapped Babe's shoulder for him to put her back down again. "Can I believe what?" she shared a confused looked with Annie.

Babe scoffed. "You haven't heard?" he asked, getting shakes of the head from the ladies in front of him. "Winters just told us! The German Army has surrendered! The war's over!"

"What?!" Margot's expression switched from uncertainty to joy in a matter of seconds. "You're kidding me. Really?"

"Nope!" Babe grabbed her again and swung her around some more, this time getting no smacks on the shoulder. "Happy VE Day!"

While Babe and Margot celebrated between themselves using the last of the wine left in Margot's bottle, Annie jogged off over to where George was digging through his bag and threw her arms around him. "Happy VE Day!" she told him, catching him off guard and sending him stumbling back a few steps.

"Whoa." George regained his balance and took a few seconds to process what was happening, but when he realized that Annie was hugging him, his arms snapped around her tightly. "Happy VE Day!" he returned the sentiment. 

"Oh, George." Annie smiled wide as she pulled back from the hug. "Can you believe it's really true? Do you think some of us will get to go home?"

George smiled purely because of the fact that Annie was. "I sure hope so," he answered. 

"Me too." she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Me too."

That night, Easy Company, along with the rest of the Battalion stationed in Berchtesgaden, celebrated the victory in Europe with as much wine and hard liquor as their hearts desired. Winters had managed to stumble upon what was described as the largest wine cellar in the world, so of course, everyone was taking advantage of that before they left for Austria in the morning. 

So, starting in the early evening and lasting until the wee hours of the morning, alcohol flowed, conversations were had, laughter was plentiful, and the stress that had been weighing down the men and women of the United States Army for nearly three years was finally lifted. 

Of course, there had been no confirmations that anyone would actually be going home yet, but the end of the war sure was a hell of a good place to start.

Sitting in the corner of a packed room, Margot and Annie shared a bottle of something or other between themselves. At first, Margot had been shocked to see Annie take a swig of the alcohol considering she had never seen the small blonde drink at all before, but after a while, she got used to the sight and the two passed the bottle back and forth like they had been doing it all their lives.

"So, excited about the possibility of going home?" Margot posed the question as she lifted a knee to her chest and rested one arm on it. "See the family again, sleep in your own bed, have access to a warm shower and hot food whenever you want."

A small smile played at the corners of Annie's mouth as she hung her head slightly. "Yeah," she responded unconvincingly. "Yeah, sure."

" _Sure?_ " Margot repeated her friend's answer in disbelief. "You got a big, happy family waiting for you back home and all you can give me is a 'sure'?"

"It's not that...it's just." Annie stumbled over her words a little as she searched for the right thing to say. "Of course I'll be happy to see them, I miss them more than I miss anything in the world right now. It's just that...I don't know if I'm ready to go home and I don't know when I will be or how I get to that point. Margot, I am not the same person that left New Haven all those years ago and, well...I'm fairly certain the old me is who everyone will be expecting. In a way, I sort of envy you. When you go home, you get to start fresh; a new person, a new life. No one has any expectations for you."

"I see what you're getting at." Margot acknowledged Annie's concerns. "However, and I'm gonna be honest with you here, I would give anything to have my mom and dad waiting for me with open arms when I got back. I know family seems complicated sometimes — trust me, I'm very familiar with complicated — but complicated beats the hell out of non-existent any day."

Annie nodded as a full smile spread onto her face. "Maybe you should come back to Connecticut with me."

Margot nearly choked on the wine that was sliding down her throat. "You want me to come back home to Connecticut with you? Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Annie grew more confident in her suggestion the more she thought about it. "I think it would be good for us to not be alone after all of this. We could, you know...have someone who understands. You don't have to give me an answer right now. Think about it."

"Okay." Margot agreed. "I'll think about it. Promise."

"Good."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, and in that time, Margot let her mind wander to thoughts of what it would be like if she took Annie up on her offer. Margot knew that the thought of going back to North Carolina and being on her own scared her to no end, but another part of her knew that she wasn't really planning on being alone for very long. Margot had always told herself that if she got home in one piece, she was going to go and see Joe, just like she had promised him she would. 

But now that Annie had placed this new, very tempting offer on the table, she was left with more questions than answers. Maybe going with Annie was the right decision; the safe decision — but then again, maybe the war had left her feeling braver and more willing to take the risky decision. 

However, as much as Margot cared for Joe and hoped beyond hope that she would once again see him again one day, she was certain that there was no one she trusted more in the world than Annie Winslow. So, after shaking the overwhelming thoughts from her head, Margot looked back across the table at Annie and smirked. 

"Hey, I think it's time you heard about what happened to me on D-Day." 


	54. Eighty-Five Points

As the line of trucks rolled down the hillside road that overlooked a serine, crystal clear lake nestled between rows of mountains that went back as far as the eye could see, every man and woman of Easy Company suddenly forgot all about Berchtesgaden. While the war had no doubt provided the company with many a beautiful view, Austria was so far the most breathtaking place many of the troopers had seen in their entire lives. 

At least, that statement was true for both Margot and Annie.

"That's it." Annie chirped, her hands on the side railing of the truck and her blonde hair blowing in the breeze as she stared out at the lake. "I'm moving to Austria."

Pointing to a large, snow-tipped mountain in the distance, Talbert chuckled. "So, you reckon they'll make us run up those or ski down them?"

"Maybe they'll give us sleds and Margot can make up for her Christmas day disaster." George taunted, earning laughs from only himself and the two girls as they were the only ones present who knew about Margot's great fear of sledding. The rest of the men on the truck cracked smiles too, however, just happy to be involved in such a cheerful conversation.

As the convoy passed a field full of working women, the men all stood up and waved like mad; each and every one of them desperate to get the attention of a beautiful Austrian woman. 

As soon as the vehicles stopped next to the large, hotel-looking building that the troops would be staying in, the men and women hopped out of the back of the trucks, eager to see and do everything Austria had to offer. 

While the officers dealt with the final, in-person surrenders of the German soldiers in the country, Easy Company headed inside to watch a film based solely on the war in Okinawa; the war they all hoped they could avoid getting involved in and just get sent home instead. However, the mood in the room given off by the newly arrived officers once the film was over wasn't one that struck hope into many people. 

As Margot stood up from her chair and grabbed her jacket, she caught the look on Winters' face as he stood in the corner of the room; it was the look of the man who had just caught a glimpse into his future. The only thing Margot could do then was pray that she and Dick Winters didn't share the same future. 

The praying didn't do much good however, because it wasn't long after that the Paratroopers were given the good news and the bad news. The good news was that those who had enough points would be going home, but the bad news was that the number of soldiers who possessed enough points was very small, meaning that for almost all of Easy Company, including Margot and Annie, they would be sticking around to wait for the news about redeployment.

Having only a day or so of freedom before it was back to drills and training, many of the company members decided to make the most of their time off and spend it doing things that they enjoyed; and for a one Shifty Powers, that meant hunting. 

Word spread fast that Shifty was planning on going out to see if he could scrounge up something good for dinner, and before he knew it he had a small group who wanted to tag along, Annie included. At first, Annie hadn't really been all too keen on participating but after Liebgott bugged her over and over again to come with, she finally gave in and joined them. 

"Now I know it's in your instincts as a medic, but remember Annie, if one of us manages to shoot something, you do not need to go running out to patch the animal up and save its life. We want it to die." Joe mocked as he trudged through the brush with Annie on his heels, earning a firm smack on the back for his joke. 

"I knew I shouldn't have come." Annie folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes as she stayed in the back, being the only one without a rifle. 

Joe snickered, as did Bull and Perconte. "Awh, come on, you know I'm just messin' around." Joe looked back at her and flashed one of his charming smiles before turning around again and spotting Perconte out of the corner of his eye. "What are you crouching down for, Perco?" he asked, causing the Italian man to stand up straight again. "Think the deer's gonna shoot back?"

"Leave me alone." Frank huffed.

"How 'bout y'all just shut up and let Shifty kill us some dinner?" Bull suggested as he sauntered through the trees, his rifle sitting loose in his arms and a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth. 

"Awh, what's the matter, Bull?" Frank shot back, his demeanor much more uplifted when it wasn't him getting picked on. "You tired of eating dried up spuds three times a day?"

Annie physically winced at the thought of eating another package of dry, foul-tasting spuds. "Tell you what," she spoke to everyone at once. "If you guys manage to catch a deer and do all the skinning and all that stuff, I'll make a nice stew. I've got my mom's recipe committed to heart and I'm sure it'll taste just as good with deer as is does with beef."

"Sounds better than anything I could cook." Malarkey wasn't afraid to make fun of his own food creations that he knew brought tears to people's eyes, and not in a good way.

"Hey, you know what, I got an idea." Joe piped up again as he stepped over a fallen tree. "Why don't we just shoot Bull here and feed the company for a week?"

"I'm not making Bull stew." Annie shook her head. "Strangely enough, I draw the line at cannibalism."

A few more chuckles escaped the men, but before anyone could say anything in response, a twig snapped somewhere close by and Shifty motioned for everyone to stop moving. All at once, the seven Paratroopers halted and locked their eyes on a gorgeous buck standing among the foliage a few meters away. 

Slowing his breathing, Shifty lifted his rifle up and peered through the sight. No one made a sound as they waited for the resident marksman to take the shot, but before he could do anything, the buck spun around and darted away. 

"Awh, goddamnit, Shifty," Joe grumbled as he watched the white tail of the buck disappear into the bushes. "You let him get away. The Army outta be glad to get rid of you."

"Oh, like you could have done any better." Annie stepped up beside the frustrated man and glared up at him. 

Shifty nodded slightly, his rifle still raised. "I wish, you know. Seems they want me to stay around a while."

"You serious?" Joe asked.

Annie cocked a brow. "How many more points do you need?"

"Fifteen," Shifty answered.

Malarkey's mouth fell open and the small stick he was chewing on nearly fell from his bottom lip. "Fifteen? Jesus Christ, I thought I had it bad."

Shifty sighed. "No purple hearts. Never was injured." 

As the group headed back through the forest toward the base camp, a few of them got to talking about how many points they had and how many more they needed. For everyone present, going home was just a pipe dream. Even for those who had seen almost every single second of the war, like Annie, the points still just weren't enough.

"I need ten more," Joe said as he walked beside Annie, his hand holding low hanging branches out of the way so they wouldn't hit him or Annie in the head. "What about you?"

"Well, I got a few stars here and there for various things, and even though I never went to an aid station, I got a purple heart for those bullet grazes I got in Holland. Still not enough though. I need about the same amount as you I think." Annie answered, her hands stashed away in her pockets. "Looks like you're stuck with me a little while longer." 

Joe laughed. "Darn. Guess I'll just have to find a way to make do."

"Guess so." Annie nodded, her mind quick to remind her about what Margot had told her not too long ago. The blonde medic had yet to mention anything about it to either George or Joe, and for the most part, she was sure she was going to keep it that way.

If they were due to head back into a war, Annie knew that she didn't need things to be any more complicated than they already were. 

●●● 

When Speirs gave the order of ease, the many Paratroopers dressed head to toe in their dress uniforms relaxed their bodies and waited for the coming announcement. Not one of them was sure why they had all been called out on the bright, hot Austrian afternoon, but by the looks of it, it was something important.

"General Taylor is aware that many veterans, including Normandy veterans, still do not have the eighty-five points required to be discharged," Speirs announced as he surveyed the companies standing before him. "On this anniversary of D-day, he has authorized a lottery to send one man — or woman — home in each company. Effective immediately."

Stepping up to the helmet of names, Welsh swirled his hand around a little to show that the choosing process was indeed randomized. What only a select few knew, however, was that there was only ever one name in the helmet.  "For Easy Company," Speirs began as Welsh handed him over a single slip of paper; the smirk on his face only telling to those already in the know. "The winner is...serial number 13066266, Sergeant Darrell C. Powers."

Everyone cheered because even though they were none the wiser about the rigged lottery, they all knew that no one deserved to go home more than Shifty. "That's how it's done, Shifty!" Luz shouted over the whistles and cheers. 

"Go Shifty!" Margot clapped as the bashful sniper smiled wide and hung his head with embarrassment. 

Once the eruptions of joy had died down, Speirs continued his speech. "Sergeant Grant will see to it that 2nd Platoon takes over at the crossroads checkpoint beginning tonight at 2200 hours."

"So much for our anniversary." Christenson scoffed, his voice just loud enough for those directly around him to hear.

Chuck gave a small nod. "No shit."

"General Taylor has also announced that the 101st Airborn Division will definitely be redeployed to the Pacific." Speirs' face remained unaffected as he delivered the bad news. "So, beginning tomorrow at 0600 hours we will begin training to go to war."

Annie's heart dropped in her chest even though she had suspected for quite a while that redeployment was more likely than going home. "Guess we're gonna be running up those mountains instead of skiing down them," she muttered to Talbert, who was standing on her left.

"Yeah." Talbert did his best to flash a genuine smile to the small girl. "At least we've got lots of practice, right?"

"Right." Annie locked eyes with Margot and let her disappointment show.

 It didn't matter anymore if Margot had decided to go home with Annie or not because she no longer had a choice. Despite two purple hearts, her promotions, and her many stars, the machine-gunner was among the large numbers who were just shy of eighty-five points. 

Never before did eighty-five seem like such a large, unobtainable number. 


	55. What Would You Have Done?

"I'm gonna miss you, Shifty." Annie squeezed the man in her arms tight before finally letting go of him and allowing him to breathe again. "Thank you for never getting shot and making more work for me, thank you for always being there to save our asses when we're getting picked off one by one by another sniper, and above all, thank you for being you. I will always remember you as the best marksman I've ever known."

"Well, I'm gonna miss you too, Annie." Shifty smiled wide as the blonde medic stepped away and Margot took her place.

Just like everyone before her, Margot hugged the sweet, quiet man for what was more than likely going to be the last time. "Feels like it was just yesterday I met you in Toccoa," she recalled the very first time she had ever spoken to Shifty. "Now look at you, going home to Virginia to leave the rest of the war up to us. You know Shifty, we won't do nearly as well without your help."

"I don't think that's true." Shifty was as humble as ever. "I'm about as good a shot as anyone."

Margot chuckled but didn't correct the man, even though she and everyone else knew he was wrong. Shifty Powers would always be the best shooter Easy Company had ever seen, and along with that title, the most kind as well. 

With a final goodbye and a last wave, Shifty walked off to go say his farewells to the officers before heading home. There was a warmth of joy that spread over the company as they watched Shifty disappear around a corner; a joy that came from knowing that at least one of the Toccoa men had made it safely through the war and would be going home. 

That was what Margot, Annie, and the rest of the company believed; at least until the horrible news came in that while riding in a truck on his way to the boat that would take him home, Shifty's vehicle had been hit head-on by a drunken corporal from another regiment, breaking the sweet boy's pelvis and arm and giving him a bad concussion. 

Instead of going home, Shifty Powers would be spending the next few months in a series of hospitals; effectively setting the number of men who had returned home safely back to zero. 

What made it worse was that Shifty wasn't the only casualty in Austria. 

 ●●●

Sitting in the back of the jeep with Webster by her side, Annie looked over the shoulders of Liebgott and Skinny and watched as the small herd of sheep grazing just outside the old wooden cabin in front of them mulled about, enjoying the warm afternoon.

The only thing Annie knew about the outing was that they had located the home of a man who had in some way been involved with one of the many camps found in Germany. The girl didn't know much more than that, but after seeing the look of pure rage on Liebgott's face after he found out, she knew she had to tag along to make sure he didn't do anything rash. 

Annie had witnessed first hand what those camps had done to Joe, and by God, she wasn't going to let the memory of them affect him any more than they already had. 

"Lieb, I fucking hate this." Webster shifted in his seat, his eyes still peeled on the cabin that had shown no movement in the time that they had been observing it.

"Oh, Jesus Christ." Joe huffed from his spot in the passenger's seat. "They fingered him. You were in the fucking room, Web. One of those Polacks who was at the slave camps said this is where the guy lives, right here."

Webster sat forward a little. "Which camp?"

"Whatever camp."

"Okay, so say this really is the home of some guy responsible for the camps." Annie placed a hand on Joe's shoulder to get him to look at her. "Even if you could prove it, that makes this guy a prisoner of war. You can't kill him."

Joe seemed to soften under Annie's touch for a millisecond, but just as soon as the calm had come, it was gone again. "I'm under direct orders and I'm happy to follow it." 

As Joe and Skinny climbed out of the vehicle, Webster and Annie shared a look of concern. While their reasoning could have been seen as sympathy, there was no denying that the two of them held just as much hate and disdain for anyone responsible for those horrid camps as the next guy; the only difference was, they were a little more reluctant when it came to bending and breaking the rules in order to right a wrong.

"We should go too." Annie's hand slowly reached for the side of the jeep as she watched the two men start up the path to the small home.

Webster closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath before jumping out and following Joe's lead; Annie close behind him. Once her feet touched the ground, Annie jogged up to the front of the pack where Joe was stalking toward the residence. 

"Joe," Annie warned, her eyes scanning his face as he stared straight ahead; his expression one of focus and determination mixed with a slew of other emotions. 

"Annie," Joe said back, not even bothering to make eye contact. 

Jumping in front of the man, Annie walked carefully backward as she kept her gaze on Joe. "Now, I know a lot of things are probably running through your mind right now — probably a lot of things involving a lot of violence — but can you at least think whatever it is you're about to do through before you do it? I don't want you to do anything you're going to regret."

"Trust me, I'm not going to regret it."

Annie opened her mouth to say something else, but before she could speak, Webster caught up with them and decided he needed to throw his two cents in about the situation as well; which was something Annie had really been hoping he wouldn't do. Joe was already filled with anger and it wasn't a secret that Webster didn't exactly help with that.

"Is this a personal thing, Joe?" Webster questioned.

For the first time, Joe broke his glare with the cabin. "What?"

"Is this personal to you?" Webster rephrased.

Joe shook his head, the dog tags around his neck jingling slightly as he did so. "No, it's a goddamn order."

Webster nodded. "Does Major Winters know about this?"

"Doesn't matter."

"The fuck it doesn't." Webster snapped; proving yet again that Joe was one of the only people who was able to get him really riled up. "What if this guy's just a soldier? What if he's an officer with no ties to the SS? What if he's innocent?"

Stopping in his tracks, Joe turned to face Webster, his brows furrowed and his eyes growing darker than normal. "You know what, what if he's a Nazi commandant of a fucking slave camp?"

"Which one?" Webster asked again. "Which camp? You don't have any proof."

"Okay, enough!" Annie stepped between the men and placed a hand on each of their chests. "We've all made it very clear here that we obviously have differing opinions on the situation at hand, but that does  _not_  mean we need to start bickering with each other. Both of you calm down!"

Joe glanced down at Annie for a second before looking back up at Webster. "Were you at Landsberg?"

Webster exhaled sharply. "You know I was."

"You think he's a soldier like you and me?" Joe wrapped his hand around Annie's wrist as he glared at Webster over her. "A fucking innocent German officer? Where the hell have you been for the past three years?"

With that, Joe pulled Annie's hand away from his chest and stomped off up the rest of the path. When he reached the front door, he wasted no time in kicking it open and barging inside. 

Standing in the kitchen, a man in regular pants and a sweater dropped a bowl out of shock and began to back away, his eyes widening as Joe pulled out his pistol and pointed it at him. Following Joe inside, Skinny and Webster checked the rest of the small building while Annie waited by the door, her bottom lip tucked tightly between her teeth out of nerves as she watched Joe's every move.

The man and Joe began to half yell, half speak to each other in German, which of course, Annie couldn't understand. The only word she was able to pick out of the sentences was 'commandant', which was brought up quite a few times. 

Once he was sure the German man was the only man inside the cabin, Webster swung his rifle over his shoulder and walked out through the front door, pushing past Annie on the way and shooting her a look that said 'you should come with me because you and I both know you don't want to see what comes next'. Annie stayed right where she was, however.

Annie stayed and watched as Joe grabbed the man hard by the sweater and threw him down in a chair. She watched as Joe bent down and screamed right in the man's face, and she watched as Joe balled up the man's sweater once more in his fist and shoved his pistol into his chest.

After a minute or so of the verbal and physical abuse, the man finally admitted to being guilty to the accused charges using many words, only a few of which Annie could pick out. After the admission, Skinny left as well, closing the door behind himself and leaving Annie inside with the two men yelling in German.

When Joe fired the first warning shot, just barely grazing the German man's neck, the man jumped up out of his chair and made a dash for it, pushing Annie out of the way in the process as he stumbled through the front door, blood dripping down his neck as he began to run up the grassy hill towards the woods.

Only seeing red, Joe didn't even look at Annie as he stormed out the door as well, pointed his pistol at the retreating man, and pulled the trigger.  _Click_. He was out of bullets. "Oh, son of a bitch." he cursed as he turned to Webster and Skinny; both of whom were thus far just watching everything take place. "Shoot him."

Webster took a few steps forward, but never once did he reach for his rifle. "Shoot him!" Joe yelled again, this time more forcefully. 

"No." Webster refused just before the bullet left Skinny's rifle and entered the German man's back, sending him crumpling to the ground upon the hill. 

The four soldiers were silent as they watched the body, eyes peeled for any movement whatsoever. When Joe was satisfied that the man was dead, he tucked his pistol away and started back for the jeep. 

For the most part, the ride back was engulfed in thick, tension-induced silence. That was until Joe spoke up briefly as he guided the vehicle down one of the winding mountain roads. "Officers don't run."

"The war's over, anybody would run." Webster retorted. 

From her place next to Joe, Annie stared down at her fingers and swallowed the lump in her throat. "I would have run," she admitted. 

With that, everyone shut up again and kept their eyes on the passing scenery for the duration of the ride back down the mountain. When Joe finally pulled the jeep back into base camp and turned the engine off, Webster and Skinny jumped out of the backseat faster than the blink of an eye and took off in separate directions, leaving Joe and Annie in the vehicle. 

"We shouldn't have killed him." it took a while for Annie to find the courage to say the words she had been mulling around in her head ever since Skinny had pulled his trigger.

Joe scoffed and shook his head. "What would you have done?"

"Not killed him." Annie slid out of the passenger's seat and sighed. "The war's over. We don't have to kill anymore."

Turning on her heel, Annie began to walk off. She heard Joe jump out of the jeep seconds later, she heard his footsteps behind her on the gravel, and she heard him follow her into the nearest building where she was hoping to get out of the sun for a while. 

Stopping at the nearest table, Annie unzipped her thick jacket and shrugged it off of her shoulders, relishing in the relief of the air on her arms and ignoring the fact that she could see Joe watching her from the doorway. After pushing some hair behind her ears and realizing that the man obviously wasn't going to say anything, Annie folded her arms over her chest and sighed as she turned to him. "Yes?" she cocked a brow at him. 

"You were there," Joe started, the beginning of his sentence making no sense at all. "...at Landsberg. You were there...you saw it. How can you not be angry?"

Annie's shoulders relaxed when she understood what it was that was bothering the man before her. "I  _am_  angry, Joe," she assured him. "I'm just...Joe, during this entire war I have killed one person in total. One person, and every time I close my eyes I see his face. I'm not like you or Margot or everyone else. I was trained to save lives, not take them. I am angry, but it doesn't make me want to kill."

"The things those people went through...the things  _my_  people went through." Joe's hand slipped from where it was resting on the doorframe. "That could have been me, that could have been my family. Every time I think about it it makes my blood boil and I don't know how to stop it. I figure after everything those assholes did, a few of them can stand to lose their lives, and being completely honest here, when that fucker crumpled to the grass I was fucking delighted. I loved every second of it."

"Really?" Annie's eyes widened slightly.

"Really." Joe nodded. "And I'm not going to apologize for it."

Annie hung her head a little and exhaled softly. "I'm not asking you to," she told him. "I'm just asking that you accept the fact that I can't understand it."

"But doesn't it make you feel better knowing that there is one less Nazi bastard in the world?" Joe stepped forward and grabbed Annie by the upper arms, his grip firm but not tight. 

"Well, yes, but-"

"But what?"

"But..." Annie trailed off, unable to form her thoughts into concise, coherent sentences. "I don't know, I just...I just don't think we needed to kill him. Not today, not like that." her brown eyes drifted up to meet his. "This war is over, Joe. Don't let it swallow you whole. Don't let it devour the charismatic, charming cab driver from Oakland that I met in Toccoa. We've lost so many people already, we can't.. _.I_ can't lose you too."

Joe was speechless, and although he tried to find something witty to say in return, his mouth simply hung slightly agape. His eyes were glued to the small, blonde woman in front of him. He was so caught up in his thoughts that it took him a while to process the fact that she had cupped his face with her hands, pulled him down to her, and pressed her lips to his. When he finally did realize what was happening, the medic was already pulling away, her brown eyes fluttering open again and her hands sliding down from his cheeks.

"Don't tell anyone I did that." a blush rose on Annie's cheeks as she grabbed her jacket again and folded it up in her arms. "I'll see you later, Liebgott."

As the medic walked out of the room, her blonde hair bouncing with every step and her boots clacking against the floor, Joe stood almost completely motionless, a single hand coming up to touch his lips were Annie's had just been. 

With a small smile upon her mouth and an exciting heat in her cheeks, Annie headed back outside with the desire to find something to occupy her mind so she didn't go crazy with over-analyzing what had just happened. Not even a day ago she had told herself that she wouldn't be doing anything about the mess she was involved in with Joe and George but at that moment she just couldn't help herself; it was like her body was on autopilot and she had lost all control. 

Over and over Annie had told herself that war was no place to go messing around with personal feelings, but technically speaking, the war was over and quite frankly, the feelings had begun to bubble up much higher than she had ever imagined. 


	56. Body Count

By the time the news about Private Janovek's death had spread through the company, his lifeless body had already been brought back to base and transported to the hospital to be shipped back home to his family. 

Annie had been there when the ambulance had driven up, and with Winters by her side, she watched as they pulled the replacement out of the back, his face littered with scratches and bruises and his skin pale and cold. The man had been heading back from his shift at the crossroads patrol when a barrel from a passing vehicle fell into the road, causing the driver of the jeep to swerve and crash into the ditch. 

Just like Shifty, the man had survived battles and horrid conditions just to end up in a motor accident when he was so close to being free; the only difference was, he wouldn't be getting a second chance at life like Shifty was. No, instead, he would be going home in a coffin. 

The enemy had surrendered, the war was over, but somehow men were still dying; all because they were stuck waiting around due to the fact that they simply didn't possess enough points to go home. 

As Winters had so plainly put it, disaster was bound to happen when so many men were given access to copious amounts of weapons, alcohol, and free time. 

 ●●●

Sitting with her feet dangling over the side of the jeep, Margot drew in a deep breath of the fresh night air and sighed happily, her eyes focused on the passing trees while her ears listened intently to the story Chuck was telling to the two younger guys in the vehicle with them. 

"All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy jumps out of the hedgerow, shoves a trench knife up against his throat and screams 'whose side are you on?'" Chuck snickered softly, Margot following suite as the younger guys looked to each other, confusion evident on their expressions. 

The man in the back beside Margot shrugged. "I don't get it."

"It's D-day." Chuck elaborated. "It's 2nd Platoon's own Bill Guarnere."

Margot smiled as she remembered fondly the first time Bill had told that story himself to her. God, she had laughed so hard the first time she had heard it. "Ol' Gonnorrhea himself." she piped up from the backseat. 

Chuck nodded, keeping his eyes on the road as he maneuvered the jeep through the dark, empty streets. "Just landed in Normandy and wound up like, I don't know...what? 'Whose side are you on?'" Chuck turned for a split second to look at Margot. "What a fucking character."

"He sure was." Margot patted Chuck on the shoulder. "Still is, actually. I can hear his snarky tone in my head when I read his letters."

"Letters?" the guy beside Margot asked.

Margot nodded. "He got his leg blown off in Bastogne."

Chuck sighed, his eyebrows furrowing as he spotted something up ahead on the road. Slowing the jeep, his eyes widened as the group of four came upon a sight they were not prepared for. Sitting on the side of the road, a jeep sat idly, its headlights still on but no one inside. Beside the vehicle, a man stood still, his body half hidden in the shadows, and at his feet, another man lay in the gravel motionless.

As Chuck stopped the jeep, Margot sat forward, her eyes glued to the body in the road. "Wait here," Chuck instructed, but Margot wasn't about to let her fellow Staff Sergeant deal with whatever was going on alone. 

Jumping over the side of the jeep and falling into pace beside Chuck, the two Easy Company troopers slowly approached the man before them. As they got closer, it became apparent that the ground around the fallen man was splattered with blood, the red liquid glowing brightly under the harsh beam of the headlights. Then the second body was spotted. 

Both victims were wearing German uniforms, but since the Americans and Germans were at peace with one another, for the time being, there should have been no reason for a shootout in the street. 

"You alright man?" Chuck was the first to speak. "You need some help?"

As the man slowly stepped out of the shadows, the pistol in his hand came into view and Margot felt a lump build in her throat and a knot twist in her stomach. The man let out an eerie chuckle, his face glistening with sweat and his uniform disheveled. "They wouldn't give me any gas," he spoke, his loose words and stumbled steps making it clear that he had obviously had too much to drink. "Krauts!"

"Chuck," Margot whispered as the man turned and began to walk back to the rear end of the jeep. "We should go get help. This guy is clearly unstable." 

Chuck nodded in agreement, signifying he thought Margot was making sense, but instead of backing away, he stepped forward. "I tried to explain..." the drunken soldier gestured to one of the bodies with his gun. "This fucking limey wouldn't listen. I think he was a Major."

"Look, Private, we've got a problem here." Chuck was calm and collected, the complete opposite of how Margot was feeling on the inside.

Looking up, his facial expression almost akin to wonder, the soldier's eyes darted between Margot and Chuck. "Do you guys have any gas?"

"How about, before we deal with the gas situation, you hand over your weapon?" Margot suggested, trying her hardest not to come across as demanding or intimidating to the Private. 

Averting eye contact, the man looked back at the idle jeep and shrugged. "I guess I'll just use his jeep." he stated as he ambled back toward the vehicle. "I don't think he's going to be needing it."

"Hold on a second there, alright?" Chuck moved to follow the man, but before he could even get two steps away from Margot, the Private spun around and fired his weapon. 

As the bullet pierced the side of Chuck's head and his blood splattered all over Margot's face, the machine-gunner let out a scream, her arms darting out to catch Chuck's body as he fell limp toward the dirt. Margot heard the Private get into the German jeep and drive off, but her eyes were glued to Chuck. 

"Sergeant Grant!" the two younger guys waiting in the jeep called, reaching for their rifles as they scrambled about.

"Help me!" Margot held a blood-soaked hand out toward them and waved like mad. "We have to get him back to base! Help me get him back in the jeep!" 

Within minutes Margot and the two guys had gotten Chuck into the backseat of the jeep and were racing back down the road toward the base. "Hang in there Chuck," Margot muttered more to herself since Chuck had passed out the minute the bullet had hit him. "Hang tight, buddy."

Resting Chuck's head in her lap, Margot pulled her jacket off and pressed the fabric hard against the wound on Chuck's head in a desperate attempt to at least slow the rapid bleeding. As soon as Margot saw the familiar buildings in the distance she began to scream for help. She called for Annie and Roe and Spina and anyone else who could hear her. In general, she just screamed. 

By the time the vehicle was stopped, there was a crowd rushing toward the chaos, Annie and Speirs in the lead. "It's Chuck!" Margot tried to stay as still as possible. "He's been shot in the head! He's still breathing but...but he's out! Oh, God, he's bleeding so much!"

As soon as Annie took over Margot went into autopilot. When the stretcher arrived, she waited until well after Chuck was safely out of her lap before even moving a muscle, and when she did, she slowly followed behind the frantic group that was rushing Chuck toward the nearest doctor. 

In the makeshift aid station, the doctor placed Chuck on one of the many tables and got to work at assessing and bandaging the wound, all while Margot stood a few feet back, watching intently with her blood covered arms folded over her blood covered shirt. 

Just before the doctor started his in-depth examination, Talbert rushed into the room, his eyes wild and breathing ragged. As soon as he had heard what had happened to his friend he had run right over.

With his fingers intertwined with Chuck's, Speirs' gave the Sergeant a comforting pat on the hand, even though — just like Margot — he was more than likely doing it to ease his own gnawing nerves.

Flicking on the overhead light, the doctor leaned in close, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth all the while. "Jesus," he muttered after only a few seconds of inspection.

"What?" Annie asked, her hand gripping the lower half of Chuck's leg.

Straightening up, the doctor sighed. "He's not gonna make it." he took a puff of his cigarette.

Eugene, who was holding the blood being transfused into Chuck, shifted his weight. "You can't operate on him?"

"Not me." the doctor shook his head. "He'd need a brain surgeon. And even if you had one, I don't think there's any hope."

With that, the doctor walked off. Turning to Margot and Talbert, Speirs pointed to them. "You find the shooter. I want him alive." he then looked to Annie and Eugene. "Come on, help me."

"What are you doing?" Margot questioned as Speirs began to lift Chuck's stretcher.

"We're gonna go find a brain surgeon," Speirs answered, and along with Annie's and Eugene's help, he started to carry Chuck out to a jeep. 

As Margot stood beside Talbert and watched as the Lieutenant and two medics took off to find a brain surgeon somewhere in Austria, her mind went numb and before long she realized that the vehicle had completely vanished from sight and she was still staring blankly down the road.

By then, the blood covering most of Margot's upper half had dried, leaving her skin feeling sticky and tight. Even her once white shirt was now various shades of red and somewhere, sitting in a balled up pile, her jacket was also soaked in Chuck's blood. 

"Hey, you okay?" Talbert placed a hand on Margot's shoulder.

Snapping out of her trance, Margot forced a nod. "Yeah, yeah." she inhaled deeply. "Let's just find that son of a bitch."


	57. Made it This Far

By the time Margot had made her way into the sleeping quarters, the hallways were already packed to the brim with men grabbing their gear to get ready for the search. Margot wasn't exactly sure how many men had gotten up to help find the asshole that shot Chuck, but if she had to guess based on the crowd in front of her, she would probably say all of them. 

As soon as the group of Easy Company men spotted Margot, her shirt and skin still covered in Chuck's blood, the rage inside of them reached new levels. A few of them tried to convince her to take it easy and go clean up instead, but the determined machine-gunner was dead-set on tracking down that drunk Private and giving him at least a few good whacks upside the head.

"He wants a noncom guarding each roadblock and at least two men watching every road out of town," Talbert announced as he made his way down the hall. "Bull, Malarkey, you each take a squad and one of these witnesses on a house-to-house search."

Grabbing his jacket and rifle, Malarkey nodded and joined the group following Talbert. "We shoot this bastard on sight?"

"Try and take him alive," Talbert instructed. 

"Where's Grant now?" a voice from somewhere in the crowd of Paratroopers asked.

Margot's eyebrows knit together as she pulled out her pistol. "They took him to a Kraut hospital to see if they could find a brain surgeon."

While Margot and the rest of the company searched high and low for the prick responsible for possibly killing Chuck, Annie was riding in the back of the jeep with Eugene, tending to Chuck, while Speirs sat in the front next to a German surgeon they had managed to track down.

All things considered, the surgeon had been rather cooperative considering he had been woken in the middle of the night to Speirs standing on his porch with a gun pointed at his face; and after only a few minutes of convincing, the German was now driving the jeep through the streets of Austria, taking as many shortcuts to the hospital as he could in order to save as much time as possible. 

Right then, time was the biggest factor in whether Chuck lived or not. 

Back at base, it surprisingly hadn't taken long to locate the drunk, gun-wielding Private as many had expected; but considering he was shitfaced and could hardly even remember the incident in the first place, it wasn't really that shocking. Margot wasn't completely clear on who had picked him up or where it had happened, but as soon as she heard he had been found, she high tailed it back to the quarters.

Bursting through the front doors, Margot spotted Talbert and George sitting in the common area playing a game of cards. As soon as Talbert locked eyes with Margot he gestured to the room with the closed door behind him, and after listening to the mumbled yelling for a little, the raven-haired girl gathered that the culprit was located in the next room.

"They found him?" Margot asked anyway; her mind void of anything else to say.

George, who was trying to light the cigarette between his lips, nodded. "I don't know who's taking a bigger beating, me or him." he chuckled softly to himself as he gathered up the cards to start another game. 

As the two men began to talk lowly among themselves, Margot inched closer and closer toward the closed door. Through the glass, she could see a circle of gathered men, and every few seconds she would hear the sound of skin making contact with skin, followed by more shouting. 

Reaching for the doorknob, Margot slowly gave it a twist and pushed the door open. As soon as her presence was known, the room's ambiance dropped a few notches and all eyes were on her. Pushing her way through the crowd, Margot approached the man sitting in the middle of the room, his face already covered in physical evidence of his punishment. 

Seeing his face again brought a sick feeling to the pit of Margot's stomach, but she was determined to push it aside for the duration of what she was about to do to this waste of space sitting before her. "You're a dead man." she seethed, her red-tinted hand reaching toward her waist for her pistol. No one made a move to stop her. No one said a word against her.

Before the woman could begin to rain hellfire down on the Private, though, the door slammed open once more and Speirs barged into the room, his eyes dark and his jaw clenched tight. "This him?" Speirs looked to Margot and then back down at the bleeding man in the chair.

Margot took a step back and let her hand fall from her gun. "Yes, sir."

"Replacement." Bull filled in the missing details. "I Company."

Coming to a stop in front of the man, Speirs stared him down hard. "Where's the weapon?"

The replacement Private gasped out for air, blood sputtering from his mouth as he did so. "What weapon?"

With one fluent motion, Speirs whipped the man across the face with his pistol. No one even flinched. "When you talk to an officer, you say 'sir'." 

The replacement let out a series of rough coughs, a mixture of blood and saliva dripping onto the floor every time his mouth opened. His head was still lolled to the side after being hit, and when Speirs cocked his pistol and brought it up to his head, he didn't even move a muscle. 

Instinctively, the crowd of Easy Company members backed up a few steps, hoping to avoid being painted with the Private's blood should Speirs actually choose to shoot him. 

Margot watched with bated breath as Speirs held the gun millimeters from the Private's head, his hand shaking the whole time but his expression one of pure anger. Closing her eyes, Margot waited for the sound of the gunshot, a part of her hoping that when she opened her eyes again, the son of a bitch in front of her would have a bullet hole through his head to match Chuck's. 

But the sound never came.

Instead, Speirs lowered his weapon, wiped the blood from his hand on the Private's uniform, and pulled the cap from his head. "Have the MPs take care of this piece of shit," he ordered before turning on his heel and heading for the door again.

"Grant's dead?" Talbert, who at some point had entered the room as well, asked.

"No," Speirs answered, lifting the blanket of tension from the room. "Kraut surgeon says he's gonna make it."

Reaching down, Liebgott pulled the Private to his feet and, with the help of a few of the other guys, led him away. "He's gonna live," Margot repeated to herself, barely even believing the words when they came from her own mouth. "He's gonna live."

Drawing in a deep breath, followed by a loud exhale, Margot turned and walked out of the room, fully aware that there were many pairs of eyes on her. Listening to the sound of her boots on the floor, Margot made her way to the bathroom so she could finally wash away the blood from her hands, arms, and face. 

The water from the sink was cold, but weirdly enough, Margot didn't mind it in the slightest. The brisk temperature actually helped to pull the slightly dazed Paratrooper from her own foggy, jumbled mind. 

Cupping her hands together and splashing water over her face and arms, Margot began to scrub away the dried blood from as many areas as she could. The shirt was going to be a write-off, no doubt about that, but Margot did hope she would be able to get the blood stains out of her jacket; wherever the heck it was. 

Working to get the red and brown clumps of blood and dirt out from under her fingernails, Margot only half looked up when the door opened and another body wandered into the bathroom. "Hey." Annie smiled. "I've been looking for you. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Margot nodded, a strand of hair falling from her already messy ponytail in the process. "I'm still a little shaken, to be honest, but Lieutenant Speirs says Chuck's going to make it so...I guess that's all we can hope for."

Grabbing a wad of paper towel, Annie handed it over to her friend. "I thought it wasn't going to end well for a while there," she admitted, hating the sound of the words leaving her mouth. "That German surgeon, he deserves all the credit. He saved Chuck's life."

"I'm glad." Margot took the paper towel and used it to dry her wet skin. "God, you know...I thought once we got here we wouldn't have to worry about losing anyone anymore. I thought we were safe for a while, but with Shifty and Chuck...and Janovek. I don't think I can do this anymore."

"Well, I'm pretty sure they're cracking down on the rules around here a little more now." Annie folded her arms over her chest and leaned back against the bathroom wall. "The officers are just as upset by all the casualties as the rest of us."

Margot shook her head slightly, her hands pausing midway through wiping the water from her forearms. "No, I mean...this, all of this. I don't think I can do it anymore." she rephrased her previous statement slightly. "We're supposed to be shipping off to the Pacific and...Annie, I don't think I can fight in another war."

"Oh." the blonde pushed off of the wall again and moved to stand beside her friend. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't think any of us are too excited about it. I certainly could do without ever having to patch up another man for as long as I live."

"Annie," Margot turned and stared the smaller woman dead in the eye, her green eyes holding a sense of hollowness to them; almost as if they were looking without really seeing anymore. "I physically  _cannot_  do this anymore. If I see one more person die I think I'm going to lose my mind."

Catching on to the seriousness of the situation, Annie wrapped her arms around her taller friend and hugged her tight. "It's going to be okay." she soothed, much like she did when treating a patient. "You're the bravest person I've ever met. If anyone can do it, you can. I know it."

Without even having to think about it, Margot returned the hug, her arms embracing the smaller blonde and her chin resting on the top of her head; the contact drawing out some of the stress and emotional anguish from deep within her. 

After a few minutes of silence, Margot spoke up again. "Annie, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Do you think we're ever going to go home?"

Annie didn't even have to think about her answer, because if she did, she knew she would begin to spiral just like Margot. "Yes," she stated matter-of-factly. "Someday you and I are going to go home."

"Good," Margot responded, a small chuckle escaping her lips as her mind began to wander.

Pulling back from the hug, Annie stared up at her friend quizzically. "Is there something funny or have you actually just lost your mind?"

Margot laughed even harder. "Do you remember the last time we were in a bathroom washing blood off in a sink?" she inquired, a knowing smirk taking over her chapped lips. 

Annie thought for a few seconds before she too let out a giggle. "The boat," she recalled the memory as if it happened yesterday. "Right after Liebgott socked me in the face with his elbow."

"Fighting over Sobel." Margot reached up to wipe the few tears that had gathered in her eyes from laughing so hard. "God, we used to be such a ragtag group. Who would have ever thought we would make it this far?"

Annie let her shoulders slump slightly. "If only  _all_ of us had made it this far." she thought back to all the men they had lost along the way. "Tipper...Dukeman...Hoobler."

"Muck, Penkala...Julian, Smokey." Margot added. 

"Guarnere...Buck." Annie looked up at her friend before saying the next name. "Toye."

"Jackson, and now Shifty, Janovek, and Chuck." 

"Hey," Annie forced a smile. "At least we're still standing, right? Look at us, two peas in a war-torn pod." 

Margot couldn't help but crack a small smile at that. "Two peas in a war-torn pod," she repeated.

Searching her mind for something to cheer her sister-in-arms up, Annie smirked to herself as she opened the bathroom door and gestured for Margot to follow her out. As the two walked side by side back to their shared room, Annie leaned closer to Margot and whispered to her. "Returning to the topic of Joe, he and I kissed," she confessed.

Margot let out a half gasp, half scoff. "Liebgott?" her eyes flashed with a glint of mischievous curiosity. "Joe Liebgott kissed you?"

"Well, technically speaking, I kissed him."


	58. A Long War, A Tough War

With a drink in her hand — even though she had yet to take a single sip — Annie leaned against the wooden railing in front of her and stared out over the lake that seemed to stretch for miles into the distance before finally being cut off by the bottoms of great, tall mountains.

At sunset, the faded hue of pink in the sky cast its colourful reflection into the water below, allowing the lake to glisten with the last few rays of the sun for that day. There were birds chirping in the distance, and with the faint sounds of various conversations around her, Annie was sure she hadn't felt more content in a long while; even with the aspect of shipping off to the Pacific looming over her like a dark thunder cloud

"Sergeant Winslow." Annie heard her name and perked up, her forearms pushing her away from the railing as she turned to see Winters approaching her.

"Major Winters." Annie switched the glass to her other hand and gave a curt salute. "Is there something I can do for you, sir?"

Winters rested a single hand on the railing and glanced at the breathtaking scenery for a second. "Actually, Sergeant, there is something I am hoping I can do for you." 

"Oh?" Annie tilted her head slightly at the statement. "Well, in that case, sir, what is it that you can do for me?"

"I can send you back to England." he cut to the chase, his eyes scanning the blonde medic's face for a reaction even though he had yet to mention any of the pertinent details yet. "There's a position that's opened up at one of the Army-owned hospitals near Aldbourne that I think you would be perfect for. They need someone with experience who knows what they're doing and I can't think of anyone who fits that description better than you, Sergeant."

Taking a moment or two to process the information, Annie set her glass down on the nearest surface and sucked in a deep breath. "Sir, I don't know what to say." she began. "Thank you."

"There's no need to thank me, Winslow." Winters couldn't tell if the offer was going over well or not yet. "If you want it, the job is yours. I can arrange to have you packed up and sent out within the week."

Annie let out a small chuckle. "If I didn't know any better I would think you were trying to get rid of me, sir."

"It's a good thing you know me better then." Winters cracked a smile as he thought back to the first time he had ever met little Antonia Winslow. So small, so shy, and yet, so stubborn. "You've served your country well; better than anyone could have ever asked for. Do yourself a favour, Annie; avoid redeployment...take the job."

A small smile spread across Annie's face as she weighed the pros and cons. On one hand, she would be going somewhere she knew she liked where she could put her skills to good use without having to put her life on the line every single day. On the other hand, however, she would be leaving behind the people she had spent the past four years with; she would be leaving behind her family. Margot, George, Joe, Eugene, Spina...they would all go back off to war without her. 

When it boiled down to it, however, the choice was simple; how could it not be? Clearly, between the two options, there was one that made the most logical sense, and that was the one she had to go with. 

If there was one thing being in the Army had taught Annie, it was that sometimes you had to make sacrifices for the greater good; whether that be the greater good of the people or even just yourself.

 ●●●

As the jeep slowed to a stop in front of Liebgott and the German General, Winters and Nixon motioned for the three passengers in the back seat to hop out. Climbing out behind Lipton, Margot and Annie rested against the side of the vehicle with their arms folded over their chests.

After his conversation with Annie, Winters had bumped into Margot and offered for the two women to come down and watch the final surrender of the German Army at the airfield. "You two worked twice as hard as anyone here to be a part of this war." he had said to them. "I think you've both earned the right to see it through to the very end."

Walking over, dressed in what Margot could only guess what his very best attire, the German General gave a nod toward Winters before turning to Lipton. "With your permission, I would like to address my men briefly."

"That'll be fine, General." Lipton agreed.

With another nod, the General turned back and marched to the front of his patiently waiting troops. As he did so, a familiar face appeared, bringing back both fond and not-so-fond memories. Sobel made eye contact with Winters, but when he was saluted to, did not salute back and instead averted the many gazes on him.

"Captain Sobel," Winters called out to the man who used to make his life a living hell. 

Looking over for a brief second, Sobel sighed. "Major Winters."

"Captain Sobel," Winters said again, this time stopping the man in his tracks. "We salute the rank, not the man." 

Exhaling hard, Sobel turned to face Winters and gave a salute; the expression on his face showing just how unimpressed he was. Winters saluted back and before anyone could say a word, Sobel was off again, eager to get out of there as soon as possible.

Watching as the defeated Captain sulked off, Liebgott smirked, thoroughly enjoying the site of someone finally being able to — in not so many words — tell Sobel where he could stick it.

A few moments later, the German General began his speech. Of course, he was speaking in German, so no one knew what exactly he was saying, but thankfully, Liebgott was there to translate.

Resting his gun against the jeep, Joe tucked himself in beside Annie and listened carefully. "Men, it's been a long war, it's been a tough war." he began to translate the best he could as Speirs wandered over from somewhere to listen in. "You fought bravely, proudly, for your country. You are a special group, who found in one another a bond that exists only in combat among brothers. You've shared foxholes, held each other in dire moments, have seen death and suffered together. I'm proud to have served with each and every one of you. You deserve long and happy lives of peace."

Annie smiled softly to herself at the speech, knowing that every single word spoken could just as easily apply to Easy Company as well. Hell, it could apply to any company in any war from any country; and yet, it didn't make the sentiment any less special or true. 

There truly was a bond formed between brothers — and sisters — of war that was so outstandingly unique. It wasn't something you could come across naturally or by accident; it was something that took years of building — years of teamwork and bonding and sharing the worst moments of your lives together. It was something that, once you had it, you never lost it.

Looking out at the rows of German soldiers, Annie felt something she thought she never would: sympathy. It was at that moment that — even though she had been aware of it the entire time — she finally processed the fact that the enemy she had been fighting this entire time was just like her; they were people too. They had families and friend, they had lost comrades, and just like her, they wanted nothing more than to go home. Just like her, this fight wasn't their own, but nevertheless, they had put their lives on the line for it. 

It was a truly surreal feeling, realizing that in many ways, you were no different than the enemy. 

"I'm proud to have served with each and every one of you," Annie repeated some of the General's final words, her head turning to look at the people around her. "Beyond proud, in fact. Honoured."

"Amen." Margot slung an arm over the blonde girl's shoulders, just barely catching the momentary look between Joe and Annie out of the corner of her eye. 

Once the official surrender was over, the group loaded back into the jeep and headed back up toward the base and away from the airfield. The sun had almost dipped completely behind the horizon by then and the faint colours in the sky had turned darker and more vibrant. 

As soon as they had returned, Margot had excused herself to take a shower and the rest had dispersed in different directions, most probably heading off to enjoy what little free time they had left before training started up again in a few days.  

Strolling into the building where the troops were billeted, her head in the clouds, Annie made her way down the empty hallway and toward her room. She was hoping to finish a letter to her family that she had started that morning so it would be ready to mail out in the morning. 

Passing an open door, the blonde slowed a little and peered inside. Spotting George sitting on the edge of his bed with an old, ratty book in his hands, she decided to say a quick hello. Leaning against the doorway, the girl smiled at the sight of the radioman completely wrapped up in whatever he was reading. "Boo." she giggled when he jolted slightly. 

Snapping the book shut, George tossed it onto the bedside table and shot her a joking glare. "Didn't anyone ever teach you it's not very nice to scare people?" he cocked a quizzical brow.

"I must have been away that day," she answered, taking a few steps into the room and noting how tidy it was, in true army fashion. "I just watched a German General officially surrender." she almost bragged. "What have you been doing?"

George gestured to the book he had been holding not minutes before. "Reading," he stated as if it were obvious, which in all fairness to him, it was. 

"Exciting."  there was a pause in the conversation where silence took over for a few seconds and the two just looked back at one another. "Winters offered me a job in England today."

Annie hadn't been planning on bringing up the conversation she had had with the Major earlier that day, and if she did, she would have thought Margot would be the one she would mention it to first. However, in a split second decision, she decided to tell George about it. She wasn't exactly sure why, but she just felt like she needed to get it out in the open. 

It was hard to keep things from George; it always felt like he knew you were hiding something, somehow. 

George's eyebrows shot up and he stood from the bed. "England?" he questioned. "What-what job?"

"It's a position for a medic in an army-run hospital," she answered. "Winters said it was just outside of Aldbourne somewhere."

"So you're leaving?" George suddenly felt like he was running out of time, almost like the woman in front of him was slipping through his fingers like sand. "You're not going to the Pacific with us?"

Annie held her hands out to stop George from spiraling, which he was clearly doing, but he was jumping to conclusions faster than she could keep up with. "George," she grabbed him hard by the arms and gave him a good, hard jostle. "Calm down, will you?" she suddenly regretting saying anything to him at all. 

"You-you can't go." he peered down into Annie's deep, brown eyes. "We need you."

"Well, I'm not the only medic in Easy." she rolled her eyes playfully, hoping that when she made eye contact with George again he wouldn't still be looking at her in that way that was making her knees weak. No such luck. "Roe and Spina would be heartbroken to hear you've completely forgotten about them."

"I'm not in love with Roe or Spina."

The world around Annie came to a screeching halt and suddenly she was very aware of her breathing and the way her heart was pounding relentlessly against her chest. George's eyes widened and his mouth fell open, making it clear that he hadn't meant to say what he had said.

But he had. He had said the 'love' word. 

Neither Annie or George moved a muscle. Annie's hands were still gripping onto the fabric of George's sleeves and she was watching him; watching as his expression changed from one of complete and utter horror to one of soft enchantment. 

Annie watched as he watched her, her body frozen but her mind running a mile a minute. Internally, she begged for George to just let go of her. She prayed he wouldn't do anything stupid to ruin their friendship — unsure if she could ever go back to being 'just friends' if he did. 

But he was George Luz, and as it was known by the entire company, stupid was his middle name. 

When George kissed Annie, she made no attempt to push him away or pull herself back. Instead, her hands slid up to rest on his shoulders and she let her eyes fall shut. The kiss was very different from the one she had shared with Joe. Maybe it was because she hadn't initiated this one, but nevertheless, it was softer and fueled by a passion that had been building for years. 

When Annie had kissed Joe, it was quick and she was full of worry that he wouldn't return her feelings. With George, however, there was no uncertainty; it was crystal clear that the medic and the radioman harbored a deep desire toward one another. 

"George-" Annie's head swam as she pulled away from the kiss and tried to refocus on the thought she had been holding on the tip of her tongue. "George, I said no. I'm not going to England."

For many others, the obvious choice would have probably been to take the job in England and avoid redeployment like Winters had said, but for Annie, it could not have been more clear that the opposite was what was right for her. 

No matter where she was or who she was with, Annie would always be Easy Company's medic; so, in her mind, it just made sense to be with them, whether that be in the Pacific or not. They needed her, and in many ways, she needed them. 


	59. The End of the War

The shouting was almost deafening but despite the constant distractions around her, Margot kept her eyes peeled as she watched Eugene slide into home, securing yet another point for his team. 

The Austrian sun was blaring down something fierce but in true Easy Company fashion, the men and Margot had decided to start up a baseball game in the dingy diamond that sat in the middle of one of the many wide open fields. 

Off to the sides, a few of the officers and Annie sat atop the hoods of jeeps and watched the game take place. A few of them even took their chances to heckle when the opportunity presented itself, which only served to increase the boys' competitive nature.

However, the constant friendly ribbing was one of the many aspects that made that moment in time so perfect. In a way, it was a reminder of the first few weeks of Toccoa where everyone had been going after one another 24/7, testing each other's limits and finding who they fit in with best. 

But now it didn't matter as much anymore because the company was just that: the company. Easy Company would always be bonded to each other through things like Sobel's verbal abuse, running Currahee, freezing their asses off in Bastogne, and hopefully now, this baseball game.

"You ain't got nothing!" Margot hollered across the diamond at Webster as he stepped up to the plate, Buck Compton behind him as the game's umpire. No one had ever thought they would see Buck again, but when he showed up out of nowhere for a visit, he had received one of the most welcomed welcomes known to man. 

"Your trash talk is about as bad as your game." Annie threw in her two cents from the sidelines. "Hence why your team is losing."

Hands on her hips, Margot turned to glare at the cheeky blonde who was smirking back at her. "Says the girl too afraid to get her hands dirty and join us."

With the crack of a bat, Margot turned back to the game just in time to watch Webster's pop fly soar high into the air before falling perfectly into Buck's glove. "Nice one, Web!" George laughed. 

With a soured expression of defeat, Webster stepped back and Garcia took his place, managing to hit a beauty that rolled all the way out to Martin. "To second!" Margot pointed to George who was already waiting for the ball, a smile on his face as Garcia rushed toward him to try and push him out of the way.

Ready for his second shot at scoring another point for his team, Eugene gripped the bat hard with both hands, an expression of pure determination on his face that neither Margot or Annie had ever seen before. Just like before, he hit that ball like his life depended on it before dropping the bat to the sand and taking off toward first base.

Placing his hands hard on Margot's back, Frank pushed her out of the way as he made a dash for the next base. Before he could make it, however, Skinny caught the ball midfield and tossed it to Liebgott, who tagged the short Italian just before he touched base.

"That's out." Annie waved her arms like a wildly, causing Welsh and Lipton, who were sitting on either side of her, to lean away. "I saw it with my own eyes."

"Get ready to run." Bull tightened his lips around the cigar in his mouth before moving forward and picking the bat up off the ground. 

Running toward the pitcher's mound, Margot decided she wanted to test her throwing abilities against the biggest man in Easy. "Bull, I'm gonna throw this so fast you're not even gonna see it." she rolled the ball between her fingers, knowing full well that she was all bark and no bite.

"Little lady, are we here to talk or to play?" the tall Southern man narrowed his eyes at the raven-haired woman. 

"Well, gee, Bull, I thought we were all here to just have a little bit of fun." she teased as she wound up as far back as her arm would go. Then, with as much power as she could muster and the quick flick of her wrist, Margot threw the ball right toward the large man, who by no surprise, had no trouble sending it far out into the field. 

As luck would have it though, More was standing nearby, and with a few shuffled steps to the right, he let the ball fall right into his gloved hand. 

Next up to bat was Talbert, and just like everyone expected, he was using the opportunity to throw as much trash talk around as possible. It got so out of hand that Martin even requested to pitch so he would have an excuse to throw something at the mouthy guy. 

"Easy Company!" Speirs shouted loud enough for everyone in the field to hear. "School circle!"

Falling in, the sweaty players and hot spectators gathered around in a huddle in front of Speirs, Nixon, and Winters. "A fast man woulda had it, Perco." Winters decided to throw out a friendly jab. 

"A tall man woulda had it." Margot corrected, letting out a gasped laugh when Frank elbowed her in the side, which she completely deserved.

Once everyone was settled, some sitting in the grass and others standing behind them, Winters began. "Listen up. Got some news," he informed the group. "This morning President Truman received the unconditional surrender from the Japanese. War's over."

No one made a sound. No one could even believe, let alone comprehend, the words that had just come from Winters' mouth; the words that meant regardless of points, medals, or wounds, every single Paratrooper in the 101st Airborne would be going home. 

For the past few weeks, those words had been thrown around left and right, and although they never faltered in their meaning, at that moment, they had never sounded so real and yet so false at the same time. 'The war is over' was something Margot and Annie had heard a hundred times, but somehow this one was the only one that truly meant anything. 

After a moment of silence, a loud series of cheers broke out and one by one the men started rushing back toward the barracks where they would pack up their gear for one final time with the knowledge that there were no more uncertainties about going home. 

After four years, the men and women who had survived through the toughest conditions a person could ever possibly live through were finally going to get to go back home to their families. 

"Holy shit." Margot turned to Annie and pulled her in for a bone-crushing hug. "Holy shit, Annie, can you believe this? No more training, no more fear, no more death, no more war. We're actually going home."

Annie was so overwhelmed and overjoyed that she couldn't help but let a few tears fall from her eyes. Not two days ago she had sent a letter to her family saying that she would be going back to war, and now, in a matter of days, she would be able to see them and talk to them and touch them again. "A small part of me was actually starting to believe that this day would never come. Now that it's here I can't even...I don't even believe it."

"I know." Margot nodded as she finally released her smaller friend. "We should probably go pack up as well."

"Right." Annie agreed as the two of them started to follow the guys back to the base. "Oh, but hey-" the blonde grabbed Margot's arm to stop her. "What I said before, about you coming home with me. Have you made a decision?"

"Oh, right...that." Margot had completely forgotten about the offer altogether because as far as she had known she didn't have a decision to make anymore; she was going to the Pacific. "I, umm..." Margot's eyes drifted over Annie's shoulder and watched as the guys talked among themselves, their smiles wide as they discussed returning to their families. Suddenly, as if it all finally being real set everything into place, Margot knew what she wanted to do. 

"I think I'm going to go home," she answered. "I think I want to try and see if there's anything left to salvage of my dad and I's relationship. Family's important and, well...he's the only family I have left."

Placing a hand on Margot's shoulder, Annie flashed an understanding smile. "I get it." she supported her decision. "But remember, he's not the _only_  family you have left. See all those guys over there? They're your family. See this short little medic standing in front of you? She's your family too."

"Best family ever." Margot's eyes lit up as she smiled back. 

●●●

The journey back home was a long and tiresome one, but despite the many hours spent traveling, the high spirits of the men and women never dropped for even a second. With the promise of home again just within their grasp, there was nothing in the world that could possibly come close to putting a damper on their moods.

From Austria, the troops were sent back to England where they spent a night drinking and playing darts just like they had those many months ago; except this time Margot and Babe weren't about to get swindled by the devious duo that was Luz and Buck. The day after that they all boarded a boat very similar to the one that had taken them over there in the first place and settled in for the longest leg of their trip. 

Just like before, the boat was crowded and stuffy, but as previously mentioned, even that didn't ruin the enthusiastic tone throughout the entire vessel. Men caught up on as much sleep as they could, card games were taking place everywhere you looked, and for the most part, the conversations were dominated by the topics of nostalgia and memory.  

Annie brought up the fight between Liebgott and Guarnere again, which made Joe flush from embarrassment and Margot smile at the recollection of how hot-headed Bill used to be. He really did use to be such a little spitfire. 

One by one they took turns bringing up this or that from the four years they had spent together; all good. No one wanted to remember, let alone talk about, the bad parts, of which there were plentiful. No one mentioned the constant hunger and sleep deprivation, or the many fear-filled nights in foxholes, or the cold weeks spent in Bastogne, and most importantly, no one mentioned those they had lost.

It was already painfully clear how, even though the quarters were tight, they were nowhere near as tight as they had been on the journey  _to_ England. The missing faces were all anybody could see when they closed their eyes.

The bad would always be with them, however, which gave them plenty of time to work through it in their own time, at their own pace. So for then — for a while — they chose to only acknowledge the good that had been sprinkled in with the bad. 

The days spent on the boat also gave everyone a lot of time to think, which was something Annie had a lot of to do but no real desire to. Thus far the blonde had opted to simply ignore the fact that yes, she had been made aware of both Joe's and George's feelings towards her and that, yes, she had, at one point or another, kissed both of them while in Austria.

By then Annie had stopped trying to convince herself that war wasn't the place for what she had gotten herself into because whether she liked it or not, it had happened. The only thing she did wish, however, was that she knew what she was going to do. 

Joe Liebgott liked her, she had kissed him, and George knew nothing about it. 

George Luz liked her, he had kissed her, and Joe knew nothing about it.

For hours Annie sat in her small, cramped bunk trying to figure everything out; and then, out of nowhere, it hit her. Why was she worrying so much about something that in a few more days wasn't even going to be a problem anymore? Back in the States, Annie would go back home to New Haven, George would go back home to Rhode Island, and Joe would go back home to Oakland. 

All things considered, they would probably never see each other again; and even though that made things a lot easier for Annie, the thought of never seeing Joe or George again broke her heart. 

It didn't end up mattering in the end though, because before anyone knew it, the ship was approaching Brooklyn again and the Statue of Liberty was welcoming them home just like it had seen them off when they had left. 

Leaning over the railing, Annie smiled wide and drew in a breath of the sweet, crisp ocean air. Four years ago Annie had promised herself that if she survived the war she would return to once again look out at the Statue of Liberty at sunrise, and without ever thinking it a possibility, there she was. 

Somehow the statue looked taller, almost as if the victories in Europe and Japan had added to the height, signifying that America stood even prouder and braver as a country than it once did; and although she preferred to keep it to herself, Annie felt immense pride for being apart of that. 

After disembarking from the boat and finally stepping foot back in their home country, the members of Easy Company were finally forced to say their final goodbyes, which only added more bitterness to the already extremely bittersweet moment. 

Dressed from head to toe in their dress uniforms, with their caps on their heads and bags slung over their shoulders, Easy Company looked upon one another for the last time. They didn't have long with each other because some of them had to catch early trains, but in a way, it made the farewells easier. 

"Okay, no more beating around the bush." Margot decided to take charge of the situation. "This is it. It's been...well, I'm not gonna lie to you guys because you were all there...it's been long and it's been tough. Toccoa, Mackall, England, Normandy, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria. We've been all over, but thankfully, we won't be going to the Pacific."

"Amen." Perconte nodded in agreement, which encouraged a few of the others to nod as well.

Margot chuckled as she adjusted the bag strap on her shoulder. "Look, I've never been good at speeches, so I'm just going to say a few quick things and then I'm gonna hop on a train and relish in the fact that I don't have to see any of your ugly mugs again." a few laughs escaped, which worked wonders for easing the tension. "I know it's probably been weird as hell being the only company in the entirety of the US Army with women in it, but from the bottom of my heart — and I'm sure Annie's as well — I want to thank you all for always having my back no matter what. I know for sure that I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for you guys and I'm completely positive that I wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for you guys either. And, even though I'm sure this goes without saying, I'm gonna miss the ever-loving fuck out of each and every one of you, so you better write or I swear I'll show up on your doorstep."

"In true Margot fashion, end it with a threat." Annie patted her friend on the back before scanning the group of men before her. "I'll never forget you guys..." her eyes lingered on Joe and George a little longer than the rest, "...not even if I tried." 

And just like that, after one final huddled hug, the surviving members of Easy Company turned and split off to say some more personalized goodbyes before heading for whatever ride they needed to catch in order to get home.

Taking a few steps toward Babe, Margot pulled the redheaded boy in for a tight hug. "Thank you for knowing your head from your ass." she joked, making a callback to the absolutely atrocious first impression she had made. "You were the best partner a soldier could ever ask for."

"You taught me everything I know." Babe gave credit where credit was due. "I'm really gonna miss you, Margot."

"You better write to me, you hear?" Margot ruffled his colourful hair before giving him a hardy pat on the arm. "And if you happen to run into Bill Guarnere, tell him I say hi, will you?"

"You bet." 

As Margot turned to catch a few more guys before they disappeared, Annie had just finished up her farewell to Eugene and Spina. The three medics held a tight bond with each other — battling death together tends to do that — but their final words to each other were curt and kind. Neither one of them wanted to dwell on the horrors they had witnessed together, so after wishing each other well in life, they parted ways.

Spinning on her toe, Annie froze for a moment when she came face to face with the one thing she had been hoping to avoid. Standing in front of her, side by side, were Joe and George. As the blonde girl approached the two men, a small crowd of curious onlookers gathered, eager to see if she would finally make a choice and settle the damn bet once and for all.

Standing before the men, Annie sighed before finally speaking. "I like both of you." she kept her voice low in an attempt to keep the eavesdroppers from listening in. "You're both my friends and the fact that I may never see either one of you again makes me feel sick to my stomach. For way too long I was oblivious to what was going on, and that was my fault. I was stupid and naive and I let my feelings get the better of me in Austria. I like both of you...which is why I can't possibly choose between the two of you. I think it's better if we just go our separate ways for now. Goodbye."

The small group of watchers waited a few more seconds after the talking had finished, and when it was abundantly clear that Annie had chosen neither of them, Margot held her hand out to collect her winnings. 

The standings on whether Annie would choose Joe or George had been fairly even for the duration of the bet, and there were even a few guys who had outlandishly suggested she might pick both, but throughout the entire company, Margot had been the only one to bet that the blonde medic would pick neither. 

With a stack of bills in her hand and a smile on her face, Margot sauntered over to her friend. "Take care, guys," she called after Joe and George as they walked off before turning to Annie and flaunting her cash. "I never doubted you for a minute."

Annie eyed the cash and forced a chuckle. "You knew I wouldn't pick either of them?"

"Yup." Margot popped the P.

Turning her head slightly, Annie watched as the backs of the two men disappeared into the crowd of soldiers. "That might have been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do."

"Harder than getting Talbert to stop screaming after Smith bayonetted him?"

Annie couldn't help but smirk. "Okay, maybe the second hardest thing."

Margot watched as her friend's expression sunk back down into sadness and felt her heart sink. With Steve and then Joe and George, the poor girl had not had a good track record with men thus far. "Here," Margot held out the bet money to Annie. "The money was made at your expense. You should have it."

Annie looked down at the offering and then back up at Margot. "No, God, no. You keep it." she insisted. "Use it to help build up your shooting range...or put it towards a place of your own. I don't need it and I don't want it. Please, as a goodbye gift from me to you, keep it."

"Okay." Margot tucked the money into her pocket before glancing down at her watch. "Oh, shit. I gotta go. My train leaves soon."

"Oh, right." Annie suddenly remembered that along with all of the goodbyes for the day, she also had to part ways with Margot. "Mirage seems like a lifetime ago, but at the same time, I can still remember it like it was yesterday."

Tucking a lock of black hair behind her ear, Margot nodded in agreement. "Gosh, what happened to that mousy little girl that I met there?"

Annie shrugged playfully. "She went to war and she grew the hell up." 

"She also became my best friend." Margot wrapped her arms around Annie and rested her chin on the top of her head. "I'm gonna miss you most of all."

Annie scoffed. "This isn't goodbye...not for us." she pulled back from the hug and looked up at Margot with determination in her eyes. "Mom and the rest of my family still need to meet you. This isn't goodbye. Not for us."

Margot struggled to hold back the tears that were beginning to build up. "See you later then?" she swallowed the lump in her throat.

"See you later." Annie nodded.

Then just like that, for the first time in four years, Margot Kessler and Antonia Winslow went their separate ways. But this wasn't goodbye; not for them, at least. 


	60. Going Home Part 1

With her head resting on the train window, Margot watched lazily as the scenery passed her by, each tree signifying a greater distance between her and Annie. The black-haired woman hadn't expected that saying goodbye to everyone would have been so hard — especially when it came to Annie — but she had been feeling nothing less than miserable throughout the entire fifteen-hour train ride. 

She had tried to occupy her mind, but with the only thing to do being rereading the letters she had received from Joe and Bill, she was finding it increasingly hard to keep from missing everyone already. The last time — and first time —she had been on a train she was riding from Camp Mackall to Brooklyn, and even though the thought of shipping out to Europe was terrifying, she had been too wrapped up in talking to Annie and playing card games with the guys to really have much time to overthink.

Overthinking was all Margot had this time around. All she could do was overthink; overthink about how Annie was doing, overthink about if everyone had gotten home safely, and overthink about the ones who had been lost or injured along the way. Was Annie back with her family already? Were the guys settling back into civilian life okay? Were Joe and Bill still in the hospital? Where was Shifty? What about the officers like Speirs who had chosen to stay in the Army? How was Dick Winters doing?

Before Margot even had time to try and pick apart the questions rattling around in her head, the train had screeched to a halt into the familiar looking station and a man in a pristine suite began walking up and down the aisle, announcing that they had arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

At first, Margot didn't move. Suddenly, she was struck with bouts of doubt and second thoughts. The last time she had ever step foot in North Carolina she had been at Camp Mackall with everyone else, and the time before that, she was running away from home to join the Army. In many ways, this was the very first time she would be stepping into her home state completely and utterly alone. 

For a split second, she thought about staying seated and letting the train take her somewhere else. She didn't even care where, just as long as it wasn't Charlotte. The final call came and even though staying would be easier, Margot knew she couldn't. So, the female Paratrooper stood up, grabbed her luggage, and disembarked from the train. 

The tall woman stood still on the platform and watched as the train took off again, her eyes following it until it was nothing more than a dot in the distance. Her fingers wrapped around the strap of her bag hard and with her free hand, she reached up and pulled her cap off of her head. She was well aware of the stares she was getting from the many passer-biers, but she was so far from caring what they thought about her it wasn't even funny. 

They could think a female Paratrooper was weird all they wanted because as far as she was concerned, she wasn't a paratrooper anymore. Sure, she still held all of her Paratrooper training and experiences, but as soon as her boots hit the dirty ground of the Charlotte train station, she was just Margot Kessler again. 

She was just a woman who lived on an old, rundown piece of land and ran a ratty shooting range. She was just a woman who lived with her scumbag of a father and yearned for the days she still had her mother around. 

She wasn't Staff Sergeant Margot Kessler anymore; no, she was just Margot Kessler. 

With a sharp exhale, Margot spun on her heel and headed out to track down a cab to take her home. When she finally caught one, she slid into the back seat and spat out the address of her house.

Peering through the rearview mirror at her, the driver furrowed his eyebrows momentarily as he pulled away from the curb. "Nice getup, lady," he commented. "You in the Army or something like that?"

"Yeah," Margot kept her gaze on the passing buildings out the window as they slowly made their way out of the city and toward the country. "Something like that."

It was then that Margot remembered that besides the people she had interacted with in the Army, no one had ever even known that there were ever women in the forces. Since she and Annie were tests, their status in the Army was on a very need-to-know basis. 

How would she ever explain to anyone what she had been through when, as far as everyone knew, there had never even been female Paratroopers? 

Hopefully, she and Annie had proven that women had what it took to fight alongside the men. Hopefully, she and Annie had changed the rules for women in the forces. Hopefully, she and Annie had done some good.

As soon as the cab turned down the familiar, long dirt road, Margot felt her palms begin to sweat. What was her dad going to say when he saw her again? Even after everything he had done to her, she wouldn't hold it against him if he was angry at her for just up and leaving for four years without anything but a note she left for him. 

Margot could still remember every word of that note, and more than anything, she hoped that her wish for the future inside of it had come true. More than anything, Margot hoped that her father had found his own happiness in life and that, maybe if she were lucky, they could start over again with each other.

Then Margot saw the house. Even though she hadn't expected it to change at all, she was still somewhat surprised that it seemed to look the exact same as it had the morning she had left. She saw the paint-chipped front door, she saw the shooting range and the office, both of which still sported her many DIY attempts at being a handyman, she saw the porch, and then she saw the only things that were different.

In the front lawn, just beside the long, winding driveway, there sat a sign. In large bold letters the red, eye-catching display read  **FOR SALE** , and below it, in smaller font, the name of the real estate agent responsible for the property. 

The second difference was the shiny black car that was parked just in front of her beloved porch. It was a vehicle she didn't recognize in the slightest, and for some reason, it worried her to no end. 

"What the-?" Margot pressed her palms against the cab window as they turned into the driveway and passed the sign. 

"Here we are ma'am," the driver chirped, a pleasant smile on his face as he pulled in beside the black car. 

Reaching into her pocket, Margot pulled out a handful of the bills she had gotten off of the bet about Annie and shoved it into the cab driver's hand, her eyes still glued to the house. "Keep the change," she mumbled before opening the door and climbing out of the back of the cab.

"Good luck selling the house!" the driver just managed to get out before Margot slammed the door shut again and darted up the steps to the front door. 

Hearing the cab pull out behind her, its wheels rumbling along the gravel, Margot reached out and twisted the handle of the front door, almost surprised when it opened. Just like always, the door creaked as she pushed it open, and as soon as she saw the inside of her childhood house, she gasped. 

The entranceway, hallways, and living room were full to the brim with cardboard boxes. The dining table and couches were wrapped in plastic and the photos of her family that used to line the walls were missing. Unlike the outside, the inside of the house was nothing like she remembered. If she hadn't have known any better, she would have sworn she had walked into the wrong home. 

Dropping her hand from the thick strap, Margot let her bag slide from her shoulder and smack onto the ground. With wide eyes and a mouth hung slightly open, she took a step forward.

"Hello?" a female voice called from somewhere inside the house. Seconds later, a woman dressed in a blouse, skirt, and heels rounded the corner from the living room, a look of shock on her face when she spotted Margot. "Oh, Hello." she greeted, her arms wrapped around what looked like a clipboard as her eyes looked Margot up and down, clearly clocking the Army uniform but not mentioning it. "Are you here to see the house?"

Turning to the wall beside her, Margot's fingertips brushed over the spot where a photo of her and her mother used to hang. She didn't say a word. 

The woman tucked a strand of her silky brown hair behind her ear and watched Margot for a few seconds before speaking again. "I wasn't expecting any clients today but if you want I can show you around." she offered, still assuming Margot was a possible buyer. "I know the place looks a little rough at first glance but the property itself is absolutely amazing. A perfect fixer-upper. Come on, we'll start outside and work our way in."

As the woman walked past Margot, her heels clicking on the floor as she headed for the front door, Margot turned to face her. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Elise Groves." the woman stuck a hand out to shake Margot's. "I'm the house's real estate agent."

Margot looked down at the outstretched hand before her but didn't move to return the gesture. "Elise," she repeated, remembering the name as the one on the sign out front. "What happened to the owner?"

Dropping her hand, Elise's face fell a little. "Oh, it was really quite sad." she started. "I don't know much about it but it was some time ago now though. Place used to belong to an older man. Lived here all by himself. I believe he was found around Christmas by one of the distant neighbours."

Margot's heart dropped and she felt as though her legs were going to give out underneath her weight. " _Found?_ " the word almost got caught in her throat. 

"Oh, don't worry." Elise cracked an assuring smile before dropping her voice into a hushed whisper. "He shot himself in the office, not the house."

A shriek ripped through Margot's throat as her hand clamped hard over her mouth to muffle the sobs. With her free hand, she gripped hard onto the wall and tried her hardest not to collapse right there in front of this real estate agent. 

Elise's eyes widened and she froze, unsure what to think or do as Margot broke down in front of her. "Did..." she took a single step closer to the crying woman. "Did you know the owner?"

All Margot could do was nod. There were absolutely no words. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry." Elise dropped her clipboard to the ground and pulled Margot in for a hug, and even though Margot had only met this woman all of five minutes ago, she let herself melt into the embrace. 

After a while of choked sobs and ragged gasps for air, Margot willed herself to calm down and pulled back from the hug. "I'm sorry." she apologized. "I'm sorry, I just...this was my house. The man was my father. I haven't seen him in four years."

Elise's hand shot over her mouth. "Oh, God, and I was just all very nonchalant about his death." she physically winced at her mishap. "Please, don't apologize. I'm the one that should be saying sorry. God, I should get out of your hair. I'll leave everything unlocked. Take your time. There's no rush."

Margot tried to tell Elise that she didn't have to go, but the horrified agent was much too embarrassed by herself to stick around any longer. So, without another word, Elise jumped into her car and drove off, leaving Margot truly alone. 

For a while, Margot just stood in the doorway, watching as the black car drove off, and then when it was gone, how the red 'for sale' sign rocked back and forth in the breeze. She wasn't sure what to do with herself. Somehow, she couldn't force herself to walk back into the house, so she stood there for a while. 

After half an hour, the sun began to set and the sky turned a rather beautiful shade of orangeish-yellow. Margot watched the colours come and go, and when there was nothing left but a dull, dark blue, she finally pushed away from the doorframe.

Margot didn't dare wander down to the office; after what she had heard, she couldn't possibly step foot in that old, broken-down building ever again. So, she turned and went back into the entranceway, and like a zombie, she shuffled through the house. 

Boxes littered the floor, some full to the brim with her family's belongings, and others only about half packed. There was nothing left that identified the house as hers anymore. There was no personal touch remaining. 

Her father's boots weren't sitting by the front door, her mother's cookbooks weren't sitting in neat, untouched piles in the kitchen, and the drawing that Margot had done as a little girl that had always sat on the fridge wasn't there anymore. 

All of her family's memories were packed away, almost like there was nothing left of the people who used to occupy the house. 

Slowly, Margot climbed the steps up to the second floor, which looked pretty much exactly the same as the main floor. Boxes and boxes and boxes. The beds had been stripped of the sheets and pillows and the wardrobes, for the most part, had been emptied. 

Margot wouldn't have even recognized her room if it weren't for the pale blue walls that she had begged her mom to paint when she was younger. 

Coming to the end of the hallway, Margot stopped just short of her father's room; the room that at one point belonged to both of her parents and now belonged to neither of them. The room, just like every other room in the house, had been cleaned up and shoved into cardboard boxes. The only thing that stood out at unique was a smaller box that sat on top of the bedside table. 

This box wasn't like the others. This one was yellow and on the outside read the words  **The Kessler Family**. Walking over, Margot picked up the box, sat down on the bare mattress, and placed it in her lap. For a minute or so she just held the box in her hands and stared down at it. Never in her life had she seen this box before. 

Drawing in a deep breath, she finally pulled the lid off and set it down beside herself. At first glance, the contents of the box looked like nothing more than junk, but with a closer look, it became evident that it was a keepsake box of sorts.

Right on top, folded up and slightly crumpled, sat the letter that Margot had written for her father the morning she had left. Unfolding it, Margot's eyes glanced over the page before setting it back down. The next thing she picked out was a small string bracelet that Margot instantly recognized as one she had made when she was younger. She had made one for both her mother and father and while her mother had worn it almost every day for a year, her father had apparently tucked his away for safe keeping.

Item after item that Margot pulled out of the box brought back a certain memory or two from when she was younger; from when her family was happy and together. 

There was the shell casing from the very first time Margot's father had taken her hunting, there was a pressed flower from her mother's garden that used to flourish every spring and summer, and there was even a small bag that contained what could only be explained as Margot's baby teeth. 

Soon, there was only one thing left in the box. Reaching in, Margot picked up the photo and flipped it over. As soon as she did, she felt tears well up in her eyes. The picture was one of her, her mother, and her father standing together at one of the ice cream shops in town. It was one of the last times they had all gone out as a family before her mother had passed away. 

It was a memory that always came to mind when Margot thought back to when her family was whole. 

Clutching the photo to her chest, Margot placed everything back onto the box, put the lid back on, and carried it out of the room with her and down onto the porch where she sat on the creaky steps to watch the final sliver of light from the day disappear. 

It was then that Margot finally allowed herself to process what had happened. Her father was gone; he was dead. According to Elise, he had shot himself in the shooting range office. 

Margot blamed herself. If she had never left in the first place, if she had just stayed where she was, he would probably still be alive. Margot couldn't even begin to imagine how he must have felt when he woke up and discovered he was alone. His wife had died, his daughter had abandoned him, and he was alone with a house and a business to run. 

"I'm sorry, Dad." Margot looked down at the photo again and stared at the smile on her dad's face; a smile she hadn't seen in ages. "I'm so sorry I let you down." 

Then, in an instant, it felt as if she were back at square one; sitting at home in North Carolina, feeling alone in the world without a plan and no idea where to go or what to do with herself. She knew she couldn't stay at the house. Not only could she not afford it if she were to try and maintain it all on her own, but she also knew she couldn't stand to be around the memories all the time.

Running her fingers through her black hair, Margot let out a sigh and stared up at the bright stars that speckled the night sky. 

Never before had she imagined returning from the war would be harder than living in the war itself. She wasn't supposed to lose anyone else; not when she was so far away from it all. Coming home was supposed to be the good part. Coming home was supposed to be easy. 


	61. Going Home Part 2

From the second the cab pulled up outside of Annie's house she could barely contain her excitement. With a hasty 'thank you', she paid the driver and promptly hopped out of the back of the vehicle. For years she had dreamt about the moment she would get to see her family again, and even though at times it seemed like she would never return home, there she was; it was finally happening. 

With her bag slung over her shoulder, Annie walked up the small stone pathway to her front door and practically skipped up the steps. Her dad's pickup truck was in the driveway, meaning that he must have gotten home from work early, and behind it, haphazardly thrown onto the ground, was Timothy's bike, meaning that he had yet again forgotten to put it away after returning from playing with his friends.

For a minute or two, Annie stood on the front porch and admired all the things about her house that had remained the same since she had last seen it. The familiarities made her smile wide and assured her that even though it had been four years, things hadn't changed that much while she had been away.

Turning to the door, Annie drew in a deep breath. Her family had no idea she was coming home. The last they had heard, she was supposed to be going back to war in the Pacific. The last they had heard, she was still in Europe. 

Raising her hand, the blonde adjusted the cap on her head and then, without taking a moment to overthink it, knocked on the door. At first, there was nothing. No sound, no movement; nothing. Then she heard it.

"Mom!" Julia's sweet, soft voice called from somewhere within the house. "There's someone at the door!"

Annie felt tears well up in her eyes from the sound of her sister's voice alone. Then there were footsteps, and slowly they got louder and louder. Annie's heart began to race and her palms began to sweat and she had no idea. Why was she so nervous? This was her family. It must have been nervous excitement. 

The doorknob twisted and then all at once, the door swung open. As soon as Elaine Winslow saw her eldest daughter standing in front of her, dressed head to toe in the most well-kept uniform she had ever seen, she froze on the spot. One hand flew over her mouth and the other clutched her chest. 

"Hi, Mom." Annie squeaked out, her own voice failing her. "I'm home."

When Elaine pulled her daughter in for a hug, the flood gates opened and the woman broke down into tears of pure joy. "Oh, my sweet Annie." she held her daughter as tight as she could, determined to never let her go again. "My sweet, sweet girl. You're home."

Annie dropped her bag into the entrance of her home and wrapped both arms around her mother, her own tears falling rapidly at that point. "I'm home," she repeated. "I'm home."

"Mom?" Julia's voice called out again. "Who's at the door?"

When the smaller girl rounded the corner from the living room, her eyes widened and she ran to join in the group hug. "ANNIE!" she cried out as she crashed into her older sister and grabbed onto her waist. "ANNIE'S HOME!"

Annie could hardly believe how much Julia had changed. She was so much taller and her hair was so much longer. "Hey, kiddo." Annie bent down to hug her sister. "I've missed you so much! How are you doing?"

"I'm a lot better now that you're here," she answered, which made Annie's heart melt on the spot. "I missed you a lot, too. I have drawings for you. Lots and lots of drawings. Paintings too! I go to art class now."

"I heard." Annie couldn't help but laugh. "Mom told me all about your classes in the letters she sent. I still have them all."

With excitement coursing through her, Julia darted for the stairs and started to run up them. "I'm gonna get my drawings!" she shouted back at Annie. 

"Oh, get your brother too!" Elaine called to her youngest. 

"Okay, Mom!"

With Julia's heavy footsteps echoing through the house as she bolted up the steps toward her room, Elaine turned back to Annie again and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I can't believe you're really home." she placed a hand on her daughter's cheek, almost as if she were making sure she was real. "Come on. Your father and Philip are outside. They're trying to put together a swing set."

Annie chuckled as she followed her mother to the back door. "Julia and Timothy finally begged you enough to get a swing set?"

"It's a joint birthday gift for them. We couldn't handle the whining anymore." Elaine laughed as she pushed open the back door and stepped out into the backyard. "Arthur, Philip! There is someone here that I think you might want to see."

"Is it someone who knows how to put together this damn swing?" Annie's father, Arthur, jokingly grumbled as he peered down at the impossibly confusing instruction manual. "I don't even think these instructions are in English."

Stepping through the back door, Annie placed her hands on her hips and scoffed at the pile of swing pieces that had been scattered throughout the yard. "I'm not sure I can do much better than you, but I'm more than willing to give it a shot," she spoke, her voice causing both her father's and her brother's head to shoot up.

"Annie!" Philip jumped up and ran over, his broad arms engulfing her and picking her up off the ground. "You're home?"

"Yes!" she wheezed out as the air slowly compressed out of her lungs. "I'm home. Please don't kill me before I've even gotten to have a proper meal."

"Oh, sorry." Philip put his sister down and readjusted the collar of her uniform jacket. "You look good. Super dashing."

Annie blushed a little as she stepped around her brother and made her way over to her father. "Hi, Dad," she held her arms out for yet another hug. "Been a while."

"It sure has." Arthur embraced his daughter tight, barely able to remember the last time he had. "I've missed you, Annie. I'm glad you're home."

"Me too." Annie nodded. "Me too."

Just then, the back door burst open and Julia ran out, her hands full of paper and Timothy hot on her heels. "Annie!" the younger boy ran over and for a second, just like she had with Julia, Annie wasn't even sure he was her sibling. He looked so different.

"Timmy!" Annie smiled wide as the final member of her family arrived to greet her. "Look how much you've grown! My goodness!"

"It's not Timmy anymore." the boy swatted Annie's hand away as she went to ruffle his hair. "It's Tim now."

Annie looked up to her mother, who was sporting an amused look. "He says he's too old for Timothy or Timmy." she shrugged. 

"Too old for Timmy, huh?" Annie narrowed her eyes at her brother. "Not old enough to put your bike away though? I saw it behind Dad's truck."

"Hey!" Tim gasped. "Not fair!"

"Oh, plenty fair." Annie grabbed her brother and ruffled his hair anyway, just liked she used to do all the time. "I'll stop calling you Timmy when you stop leaving your bike out. One of these days, Dad's gonna run it over on his way to work."

Arthur snorted. "I've almost done it on purpose just to teach him a lesson."

"Dad!" Tim turned to his father and glared at him.

"Tim!" Arthur mocked his son. 

Folding her arms over her chest, Annie chuckled to herself as she watched the two bicker back and forth with each other. For the most part, everything was just the way she had remembered it, and she couldn't be happier. 

Feeling a tug on her clothing, Annie looked down to see Julia standing beside her holding out her pile of artwork. "Here." she handed the papers over. "These are all the ones I did for you."

"Wow!" Annie started to go through all the different drawings and paintings, all of which had her in them in one way or another. "These are so good, Julia! These are the best paintings I have ever seen."

"Thanks." Julia's smile was sweet enough to bring a smile to anyone's face; even Lieutenant Speirs'. "I didn't do any of you in your cool outfit though." she gestured to the dress uniform Annie was wearing then. "I like it. You should wear it every day."

Annie giggled. "Oh, I don't know about that."

"Like I said," Philip smirked. "Dashing."

"Shut up." Annie rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious! You look super cool." Philip defended himself. "If I woulda known the Army gave you uniforms like that I wouldn't have told anyone I was half deaf."

Annie sighed slightly. "The uniform isn't worth it," she muttered, just loud enough for Philip and her mother to hear. 

Resting a hand on her daughter's shoulder, Elaine smiled and turned back toward the door. "Dinner's almost ready." she changed the subject. "Why don't you go inside to get changed and wash up? It's much too hot out to be wearing all those layers."

"Yeah." Annie forced herself out of the weird mood she had dropped into for a second there. "Yeah, that sounds good."

●●●

After a good, long, hot shower, Annie had changed out of her uniform, hung it neatly in her closet, and changed into one of her favourite dresses. It had been such a long time since she had worn anything but ODs or her dress uniform that it definitely felt weird to have her legs exposed, but the fabric was just as soft and comfortable as she remembered. 

With her wet, longer than normal hair hanging over her shoulders, Annie stood in front of her mirror and noted how the fabric of the dress hung loosely on her. Annie knew she had lost weight while away, but usually it was hard to tell when she was wearing large, baggy clothing. Now, however, when she was dressed in a dress that used to fit her just right, it was painfully obvious how skinny she was when the already thin sleeves no longer hugged her arms like they used to. 

All of a sudden, she looked like a completely different person altogether. 

"Annie! Dinner!" her mother's voice called from downstairs. 

Taking one last look at the stranger staring back at her in the mirror, Annie exited her small, untouched room and made her way down the steps for dinner. Sitting at the table with her family again was such a surreal feeling, but oddly enough, the part that really threw her for a loop was when her mother set down a plate in front of her.

Annie eyed the heaping portion of meatloaf, potatoes, and corn and instantly felt out of place. "There's so much food here," she commented, having gotten used to the stingy Army rations she had been living off of. 

"Oh, are you not that hungry?" Elaine asked as she sat the final plate down and joined her family at the table. "I just gave you the same amount as everyone else."

"No, no, I'm starving." Annie shook her head. "I'm just not used to getting this much food all at once is all. It's nothing, don't worry about it."

Arthur looked to his wife and then Annie again. "How much did they usually feed you?"

"Well, that depends," Annie answered. "Sometimes I went a whole day with only eating one single K ration. Other times we actually got to cook something, but even then, no one got a whole lot. We had a whole company to feed."

Annie noticed the confused looks on her family's faces and decided a visual representation might help them understand more. Picking up her fork, Annie took about 1/4 of her meatloaf, potatoes, and corn and then pushed the rest to the other side of the plate, which was most of the meal. "There." Annie pointed to the smaller pile with her fork. "That's about the size of a good meal."

"My God, Annie." Elaine was nearly horrified by the amount of food her daughter had pushed away. "That must be why you're so skinny."

Annie swallowed hard. She had hoped they wouldn't notice. "Must be." she nodded before putting the food on her plate back the way it had been. "Doesn't matter now though. It smells delicious, Mom. Thank you."

Elaine forced a smile. "You're welcome, sweetie."

As soon as the family dug into their dinner, Annie began to shovel the food into her mouth at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, she was fully aware of how her parents and Philip were watching her, but after years of being conditioned to eat as fast and as frequently as possible, she just couldn't help herself.

In about five minutes, Annie had completely cleaned the plate while her family had only just started. "That was amazing." she sheepishly smiled, wishing she could just disappear into herself and hide. "I haven't had anything that good since...well, since the last dinner I had here." 

"Army food must really suck ass." Tim pushed his corn around his plate.

"Language," Elaine warned.

Annie cracked a smirk and looked to her brother. "Yeah, it did really suck ass."

Elaine sighed and looked to her daughter, who had never been one to swear. "Annie, please."

"Sorry." she apologized. "Bad habit."

Reaching for his glass of wine, Arthur peered over his glasses at Annie. "I hope you didn't pick up smoking while you were gone. Nasty habit, that is."

"No smoking. I promise." Annie was proud of herself for managing to avoid smoking, and for the most part, drinking while she had been deployed. "Some other stuff, yes. But no smoking."

"Good." Arthur took a sip of his wine. 

After dinner, Annie helped clear the table and do the dishes. With the dirt of the past few days washed away and a belly full of warm food, the blonde girl was beyond exhausted and was more than a little excited to crawl into her own bed and hopefully have a good night's sleep. She couldn't even remember the last time she had slept through the entire night without a single disturbance or nightmare. 

It took a while for the tired woman to fend off her many curious family members who just kept asking question after question, but eventually, after a few failed attempts, she was able to make her way into her room and close the door behind herself. 

With her back against the door, Annie closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. She hated to admit it, but she felt like a guest in her own home. Everything she did was being analyzed by someone and there was always somebody asking her about her time spent in Europe. 

Annie tried to politely explain that she wasn't ready to talk about it yet, but they just didn't catch on, and she couldn't hold it against them. War was something you either understood or you didn't. It wasn't their fault. 

Changing into something more comfortable to sleep in, Annie turned off the light in her room and crawled into her bed. The euphoric feeling of her aching bones sinking into the soft mattress was enough to make her tear up, and at one point she even let out a small giggle, which she was glad no one else was around to hear. 

Tucking the blanket around herself, Annie let her head fall into her pillows and closed her eyes, ready for a much-needed sleep. For a while, the girl laid there, trying and failing to will herself to sleep. Something wasn't right.

It was quiet and she was alone. 

For years Annie had gone to sleep with the sounds of mortars and gunfire blaring in the background, and more often than not, there was at least one other person in the room with her; sometimes, when it came to freezing foxholes in Bastogne, there was even a person smushed on either side of her. 

Everything was so different, and that's when Annie realized what the real problem was. It wasn't what she had originally worried about; that everything would be different when she got back. No, it wasn't her family who had changed, it was her. 

Annie Winslow wasn't the same Annie Winslow that had left home four years ago to prove something to herself. This Annie Winslow had lived through a war; this Annie Winslow had witnessed death and even, on one occasion, killed. 

Lying there in the dark and eerie silence of her room, Annie hugged her pillow tight to her chest and prayed that the people she loved were capable of loving the person she had become. 


	62. Little Steps

Lying with her head propped up against the mountain of pillows behind her, Annie stared out the window that sat on the wall opposite her bed and watched as the branches from the tall tree in her front yard swayed gently in the morning breeze.

It felt weird to still be laying in bed when the sun was already so high in the sky, but no matter how hard she tried, Annie just couldn't will herself to roll out of her sheets and start the day yet. 

The former medic had been home from deployment for roughly about a week already and every day she continued to discover new struggles of settling back into her old life. Her days were made up of a mixture of her siblings asking her questions about her time in Europe and her parents reminding her that the sooner she got back on her feet and found a job, the easier it would be to restart her life again, which Annie seriously doubted, however. 

The blonde girl really did attempt to conform with the routine of her previous life but she still seemed to get overwhelmed by the simplest things, which resulted in her needing to take a break in her room or go for a walk around the block to clear her head. 

The only time she was alone with her thoughts and able to just process and think and absorb was the half hour or so she spent in bed after waking up. Waking up was a loose term, however, because it required the person to have actually fallen asleep at some point, and much to her dismay, Annie had yet to have what she would refer to as sleep. Sometimes she dozed off for an hour or so, but then she would have a bone-chilling nightmare of Hoobler dying in her arms or the sight of Bill and Joe in Bastogne or any of the other horrible things she had witnessed while at war and she would wake with a soft cry, her body covered in sweat and her hands clenching fistfuls of her sheets. 

Hearing a gentle knock at the door, Annie tilted her head toward the noise just as the door opened a crack and her mother stuck her head in. "Oh, good, you're awake." Elaine's warm smile was enough to chase the demons away, even if only for a moment. "Breakfast is ready. I made your favourite, pancakes with strawberries."

Annie's mood instantly brightened and she sat up in bed, her hair messy and her eyes still a little bleary. "Okay, thanks. I'll be right down."

As soon as the door was shut again, Annie swung her legs over the side of her bed and stretched her arms over her head. As a force of habit, she began to reach down for her boots but stopped herself halfway through when she remembered that she no longer needed to stuff her small feet into mud-caked boots every morning anymore.

One of the hardest habits to break was the morning routine that had been drilled so far into her head she was sure she would never completely forget it, but slowly, day by day, she was getting better. The first morning had been the hardest — Annie had sat on the edge of her bed for over an hour just trying to figure out what to do first — but every morning it got just a little easier.

The only thing Annie wished was that the process of readjustment could be faster; she was getting really tired of feeling completely useless at doing normal, everyday tasks. 

Standing up, Annie wandered over to her dresser and pulled out an outfit for the day. As she got dressed, she watched herself in the mirror, taking note at how her ribs and collarbone didn't protrude as much as they used to. If there was one thing she was recovering from quickly, it was the weight loss. Ever since getting home, Elaine and Arthur Winslow made sure their daughter was eating three square meals a day, no exceptions. 

Annie still felt a little groggy and out of place as she made her way down the steps to the kitchen, but as soon as she spotted her whole family sitting at the table waiting for her, she perked up right away. The best part about being home, without a doubt, was being back with her family. 

Annie had enjoyed nothing more than spending the past few days getting caught up on her family members' lives; and even though it did make her feel a little distant at times, she always found herself loving the stories and new information in the end. 

"Good morning," Annie smiled wide as she took her spot at the table and reached for the jug of orange juice.

"Morning," Arthur looked up from his newspaper to greet his eldest daughter before returning to his morning reading.

By the time Annie had poured herself a cup of juice and had made her pancake up just the way she wanted, Tim and Julia were already half finished with their breakfasts. Annie smirked to herself and shook her head slightly, grateful for the fact that she wasn't the fastest eater anymore. After the incident with her first meal home, she had become extremely aware of her eating pace and had made sure that she ate much slower. 

As soon as they were finished breakfast, Tim and Julia jumped up from their chairs, took their plates to the sink, and bolted out the back door to play on the newly built swing set. It had taken a few bouts of trial and error, but eventually, Arthur and Philip — with a bit of Annie's help  — had managed to get the tricky thing put together without any extra pieces or lopsided beams. 

"I think today might be a good day to go try and find some places that are hiring." Elaine's words pulled Annie from watching her two younger siblings playing in the backyard.

Turning her head to look at her mother, Annie nodded and took a sip of her juice. "Oh, yeah." she agreed even though the thought of it made her stomach turn. "Okay."

"We're not saying you have to apply for anything today, right Arthur?" Elaine placed a hand on her daughter's arm and smiled. " _Right, Arthur?_ " she asked again when her husband didn't pipe up.

"What?" Arthur dropped the paper into his lap and looked around confused for a few seconds. "Oh, yes." he processed what the previous conversation had been about. "All you have to do is go have a look for any 'help wanted' signs. Nothing too hasty, but you know, the sooner you-"

"-the sooner I get my life back on track the sooner everything will start to feel normal again." Annie finished her father's sentence. "Yes, I know. You've said that."

Arthur let out a gentle chortle. "Well, yes, I suppose I have, haven't I?"

Returning to his paper yet again, Arthur missed the expression on Annie's face switch from content to morose. Philip noticed it, however, and so did Elaine. "You know, sweetie." Elaine squeezed Annie's arm supportively. "If you want to talk about it, we are here to listen. Always. There was only so much you told us about in the letters." 

"I know, Mom." Annie tried to hide the fact that watching Muck and Penkala blow up right before her eyes was playing over and over again in her head. "I'm just not ready yet."

"Well, I've gotta head out for work." Philip stood from his chair, subtly changing the subject in the process. "I'll see you guys later."

"Have a good day." Elaine wished her son well as he dropped his plate off at the sink and headed out the front door. 

After breakfast, Annie sat on the front porch for a little while in what used to be her great-grandmother's rocking chair and watched as the world pushed on before her; adults heading out for work, children running out to play and enjoy the summer break from school, and older couples taking mid-morning walks with each other. 

Every once in a while Annie would see someone pass by who reminded her of someone she had met during her time with Easy Company. Sometimes it was someone who had made it out alive just like her and she would smile to herself as she pictured what they were doing at that very moment. Other times, however, it was someone that had been lost along the way which would cause Annie to remember the last time she had seen them or the last words she had spoken to them. In some cases, the expression on their face moments before death would flash before her eyes. In all cases, it would make her incredibly sad.

That morning, Annie saw a beautiful woman walking a dog that reminded her greatly of Margot. On a few occasions, Annie had thought about writing to Margot, but she never knew what to say. 

Many of the Easy Company soldiers had exchanged addresses with one another before parting ways so they could send letters back and forth and keep in touch, but thus far Annie had yet to write or receive any letters. 

Every morning she would check the mailbox for anything addressed to her; anything from Margot or George or Joe...or anyone, really. At that point, she was half convinced she would even be happy to get a letter from Captain Sobel himself. 

But that morning, just like every morning before it, there had been nothing for her. 

Annie sat on her porch for a few more minutes, observing the lives of the people around her, before deciding that she really did need to get up and do something;  _anything_. She knew that her parents would pester her about going out job hunting when they saw her next anyway, so even though the blonde girl wasn't exactly up for heading into town for the first time since returning home yet, she grabbed her jacket and bag, let her parents know she was leaving and walked out the front door on her own volition. 

The walk into town wasn't a very long one, but with her head on a constant swivel, taking note of the things that hadn't changed and the things that had, Annie found that her trip ended up taking longer than she remembered. She passed her old high school and sighed to herself, thinking back to the day she had graduated without a single clue what her life would become in a year's time. 

Thinking back to the person she used to be before joining the army really made Annie glad that, even though she went through literal hell during her time in Europe, she had finally decided to do something with her life. Despite everything she had been through, Annie was sure she would never ever regret what had come to be the four best and worst years of her life.

The first shop with a 'help wanted' sign was a little bakery that Annie had visited a few times before. She remembered they made really great pastries and off of that alone, pulled out a pad of paper and a pen from her bag and wrote down the name of the shop for future reference. 

For the most part, Annie's little trip into town went rather well. She found a few places that she had an interest in working at and even talked to a few of the owners or managers. Nothing was set in stone, but by the time she was ready to head home again, she had a decently sized list in her hand.

Flipping the pad closed, Annie stuffed it and the pen back into her bag before beginning her walk home. "Annie Winslow?" a voice called out from behind her, causing her to freeze in place while she tried to identify who the voice belonged to. "Is that you?"

Turning around, Annie could hardly believe her eyes when she spotted her best friends from high school approaching her from further up the sidewalk. "Carol?" she eyed the first of the two women, a slim redhead, before looking to the second, a shorter woman with ashy blonde hair. "Nancy?"

"Annie!" Carol threw her arms up into the air in surprise before hurrying over, Nancy quick on her heels. "I can't believe it's really you! You just up and disappeared. We thought you were gone for good."

Annie swallowed hard, already trying to come up with an excuse for why she had been missing for four years. "Yeah, that..." she trailed off, knowing she couldn't just up and say she had been fighting in the war. As far as she was aware, her and Margot being in Easy Company was a fact that only those involved knew about. "I just sort of went away for a while...just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, you know?"

"For four years?" Carol rolled her eyes dramatically. 

"Annie..." Nancy looked around before leaning in and lowering her voice. "You don't have to lie to us...Steve told us everything."

Annie's eyes widened in shock. "Steve?" she furrowed her brows. "Why would he...why?"

"Well, when we saw him without you we sort of thought that something was up — because you two used to do everything together — so we just asked him," Carol stated matter-of-factly. "He was pretty bummed out for a while but I think he's doing okay now."

"Oh," Annie tried to keep her internal stress on the down low. "Well, I'm glad to hear he's doing well."

"Enough about Steve!" Nancy waved her hand to dismiss the topic. "Tell us the good stuff! Is it true? Did you really fight in the war?"

Annie immediately clammed up. She could barely even talk about her experiences with her family, let alone two people she hadn't seen since high school. "I guess I did, yeah." she tried to keep her answer simple and to-the-point. "Listen, guys, it's been really great to see you again, but I really have to go."

"No, you can't go yet." Carol grabbed for Annie's arm. "You have to tell us all about it. Come on, there are no good men in this town. Help some sisters out. Were the guys cute?"

"Of course they were." Nancy snickered. "Men in uniform always are." 

Desperate to get out of the situation, Annie let out a nervous laugh. "Ugh, yeah, some of them weren't too bad to look at." she hoped her answer was enough to get the two women off of her back. 

"Oh my gosh, no, scratch the men!" Nancy suddenly jumped as if the thought in her own head had startled her. "Did you have to shoot a gun?"

"Oh, my God." Carol threw a manicured hand over her mouth. "Did you...kill people?"

Annie felt her palms begin to sweat and her heart rate increase. "Guys, I really have to go." she slowly started to back away. 

"Steve told us you were a medic." Nancy continued, her and Carol obviously not catching on to how uncomfortable they were making their former friend. "Did you watch people die? Oh, my God, that's so awful! I could never. Oh, but you must have saved tons of lives. That's so cool."

"We should join the army." Carol turned to her friend, her tone indicating that she was completely joking. "I think I would look really good in green." 

Before long, the two women had completely cut Annie out of the conversation — which she was beyond grateful for — and had gone to chatting among themselves about how they thought army men were a real catch, providing they hadn't gone 'insane' before returning home.

Taking the distraction as her cue to leave, Annie turned on her heel and high-tailed it out of there, desperate to get out of sight before the two chatty-Kathy's noticed she was gone. 

'Insane'. The word circled round in round in Annie's head as she walked down the sidewalk back in the direction of her house. Was that what people really thought of veterans? Was that what people thought of her?

Did her family think she was insane? Did they think it silently to themselves whenever she jumped at a loud noise or insisted on checking to make sure all the doors and windows were locked before she went to bed? Did Julia and Tim think she was insane? What about Philip? What about her parents?

Before Annie even knew what was happening, she was strolling through one of the parks she used to visit often and plopping herself down on one the benches overlooking the small, man-made lake. With her hands clasped tightly around the edge of the bench, the blonde girl slumped forward and tried to focus on her breathing.

The shade of a large, looming tree allowed Annie to get out of the sun for a while, and along with the cooler temperature, Annie tried to will herself to cool down as well. The girl had yet to have a panic attack, which her mother had warned her was apparently common for soldiers returning from war, but she was almost positive that was what she was going through then.

It shook Annie to the core how quickly she went from being perfectly fine to feeling like her own body was suffocating her. It was terrifying to feel like you could be set off by anything at any time. 

Sitting on that bench, under the shade of the nearby tree, Annie finally admitted to herself that she was having a hard time readjusting to civilian life. 

Lifting her head, Annie looked out over the water and watched as a couple of ducks floated peacefully beside one another, seemingly having no other cares in the world besides finding some food and keeping cool in the hot afternoon sun.

With her hands moving to her lap, Annie sat on that bench and watched the ducks for hours. To her, it only felt like maybe twenty minutes or so, but when she felt a hand on her back and noticed that the sun had begun to set, the realized that she had lost track of time. 

"Hey," Philip rounded the bench and took a seat beside his sister, his hand still resting in the middle of her back. "I got home from work and Mom and Dad said you hadn't come home yet. I figured you might be here. You okay?"

Exhaling sharply, Annie nodded and turned to look at her brother. "Yeah," she had managed to calm down by then. "Yeah, I just needed to take some time and think. I'm okay."

"You sure?" Philip pushed just a little harder; something had hadn't ever done before. "I know you keep saying you're okay Annie but...I don't think you are. I know my sister and this...this is not my sister."

Annie scoffed. "Believe it or not, going to war does change a person, Philip."

"I know." Philip sighed. "I also know that this isn't that. Or at least, not  _all of this_  is that. Annie, it's me. You can talk to me."

Silence fell over the two siblings for a few moments, each of them trying to think of what to say next while simultaneously waiting for the other to speak first. "I don't even know where I would start." Annie let her bag strap fall from her shoulder as she sat back on the bench. 

"Start with today." Philip encouraged her. "What happened today?"

Annie was about to tell her brother that she didn't want to talk about it like she always did, but when she looked up and saw how intently he was listening to her — waiting for her to just talk to him — she decided against it. "Today I ran into Carol and Nancy."

"Carol and Nancy from high school?" Philip questioned. "Your best friends Carol and Nancy?"

"Those would be the ones." Annie nodded. "But I don't think they count as my best friends anymore...I don't think I even have any best friends anymore."

"Awh, sure you do." Philip wrapped his arm around Annie and pulled her into his side. "I'm your best friend, aren't I?"

Annie couldn't help but laugh. "We are siblings. We are forced best friends."

"Still counts."

"If you say so."

"I do." Philip insisted. "Okay, so, Carol and Nancy. What happened with them?"

"Well, for starters, Steve told them about everything." Annie huffed as she folded her hands in her lap. "Or, well, maybe not  _everything_ , but enough for them to know where I've been. Enough for them to ask question after question...just like everyone else. Enough for them to ask if I've killed anyone or seen anyone die." 

Philip didn't say anything at first. Then, with a shit-eating grin on his face, he chuckled. "Well, did you?"

"Philip!" Annie hit him lightly on the arm even though she knew he was joking. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Philip held his arms up for protection. "I didn't mean it! I take it back!"

"Your damn right you do." Annie side-eyed her brother. 

"Did they ask anything else?"

Annie rolled her eyes to herself. "They asked if the guys I served with were cute."

"Oh, now there's a hard-hitting question." Philip tried his best to keep the mood light. "I actually do want to hear the answer to this one." he cackled when Annie shot him a look. "I'm serious!"

"Oh, you're serious, are you?" Annie cocked a brow. "You know, I think you and Ralph Spina would have really hit it off."

"Ralph Spina," Philip repeated the name as if he were considering how it felt on his tongue. "I know nothing about him besides his name but he really sounds like a stand-up guy. Now, by 'hit it off', do you mean as friends or...?"

Annie snorted at his insinuation. "Tell you what, I'll leave that up to you."

"I'd like to think we would make a dashing couple." 

"You would." Annie sighed as the laughter between her and Philip died down. "God, you really do know how to cheer me up, don't you? 

"That's what big brothers are for, right?" Philip hugged Annie tighter for a second. "In all seriousness though, was that all that happened today?"

"Yes." Annie gave a curt nod before remembering the reason she had ended up wandering into the park and losing track of time in the first place. "Wait. Actually, no...but it's silly."

Philip turned his head to follow Annie's gaze, which at some point had drifted back towards the ducks. "Annie, I found you sitting here all alone staring out somewhere a million miles away. Whatever it was, it obviously wasn't silly."

"Carol and Nancy, they mentioned something about how some people who come back from war are...insane." Annie felt about two feet tall as she explained what had happened. She knew it was stupid before she even said anything, but as the words came out of her mouth she realized just  _how_  stupid it was. "They weren't talking about me per se but...Philip, do you think I'm insane?" 

"No." Philip didn't even have to think about it. "No, I do not think you're insane and I'll tell you why. Annie, every letter you sent home I could tell how hard you were trying to keep the worsts parts of war from us. I knew you were trying to spare Tim and Julia the gory details and keep Mom and Dad from worrying but I could see, between the lines of your writing, just how much you wanted to get things off of your chest; things that you still have buried deep inside of you right now. I know there are things you haven't been able to talk about and things you feel like you can't. Keeping all that stuff inside is finally taking its toll on you. Now, I'm not an expert on any of this stuff — hell, I made sure the recruiters knew right away about my condition so I didn't have to go through what you went through — but I do think I could try to understand if you would let me. It doesn't make you insane to want to try and keep the people you love most from knowing what the world is really like. If anything, it's brave. You're brave, Annie."

With tears welling in her eyes, Annie cracked a smile and sniffled. "You really think I'm brave?"

"You are without a doubt the bravest person I have ever met," Philip assured his sister before letting the silence take over once again, this time for a little longer. "Although, I've yet to meet this Ralph Spina guy so for all I know  _he_  could be the bravest person I've ever met, but I just haven't, you know, met him yet." 

"God." Annie wiped the tears from her eyes and pulled out of her brother's embrace. "Can you ever be serious for even a second?"

"Yes." Philip stood up from the bench and held his hand out toward Annie. "I just don't think you're ready for that yet. Little steps." 


	63. Second Chances

"Here, what about this one?" Philip pointed to the next business name written down on the list Annie had composed a few days earlier. 

Leaning over the back of her brother's chair, Annie followed his finger and shrugged. "Eh, I don't know about that one anymore," she admitted as she went back to stirring the ingredients in the bowl she had. 

"Oh, come on." Philip turned around in his chair and huffed, clearly getting a little fed up with Annie making excuses as to why each job opportunity wasn't right for her. "I think it would suit you perfectly."

Stopping mid-stir, Annie furrowed her brows and scoffed. "Philip, it's a vacuum repair store."

"Well, I don't know Annie, you're the one who put it down on the list!" Philip tossed his arms up into the air for effect. "You like...cleaning, right?"

"God, I do  _love_  cleaning." Annie reached for the pan and poured the batter of her famous banana bread into it. "Almost as much as I love watching paint dry."

"Yesterday I watched you spend five minutes making sure your bed was made just right." Philip crossed his arms over his chest as he wandered into the kitchen, leaving the list of job possibilities on the table. "You never used to make your bed."

Reaching forward, Philip stuck his finger into the batter and licked it off. "Philip!" Annie slapped his hand away. "It's not cookie dough, you loon! You don't eat it raw."

Philip's face scrunched up slightly. "Yeah, I see your point." he stuck his tongue out like a child who had just eaten something they didn't like. 

Pulling on an oven mitt, Annie opened the oven, placed the bread inside, and set the timer. "Well, anyway, what you're saying is different." Annie sighed, returning to the previous conversation. "That's...that's just more of the army stuff that's been drilled into me. Besides, making your bed isn't cleaning...it's tidying."

Philip eyed his sister with a look of bewilderment. "Oh, yeah, because those two things are  _so_  different."

"They are!" Annie insisted as the back door opened suddenly and Julia came running inside, her hair slightly messed up from the wind and her shoelaces untied. "Is the banana bread ready yet?" she stuck her head into the kitchen, making sure to keep her shoes on the mat by the back door. Even Julia knew that their mom did not like anyone walking on her clean floors with their shoes. 

"It just went in the oven." Annie grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and tossed it to her sister. "There, eat that while you wait."

Catching the apple, Julia looked down at it before exchanging a look of disappointment with Philip and rushing back out the door. "You two are so much alike it's honestly a little scary." Annie laughed as she washed her hands in the sink. 

"Well, it's probably because we are the two better siblings of the household." Philip gloated jokingly. When Annie shot him another look, he just chuckled. "It's good to see you're doing better." he changed the subject. "Making banana bread, smiling, just generally being happy."

"It's all because of you." Annie smiled as she leaned back against the counter. "You've been such a big help, Philip. Thank you. Thank you for listening and, well...talking me off of the metaphorical edge every once in a while."

Philip shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, that's what a big brother is for, right?" Before Annie could respond, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it," Philip said as he jogged out of the kitchen toward the front door.

Turning toward the sink, Annie started to fill it up so she could do the dishes left over from her spontaneous baking kick. She could hear faint voices in the background, but it was hard to make out the exact words being said over the running water. 

Reaching for the soap, Annie was just about to pour some into the sink when she heard Philip call her name. Craning her neck, Annie watched as Philip came back into the room with a look of unease on his face. "Ugh, there's someone here to see you," he informed her. 

Grabbing a tea towel, Annie dried her hands off from testing the water temperature and headed toward the hallway, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Who is it?" she asked, getting no answer in return. "You look like you just ate a lemon and-"

Annie's sentence trailed off and she stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted who was waiting for her in the open doorway of the front door. "Annie." Steve stood with his hands in his pockets, shifting back and forth nervously. 

"Steve." Annie returned the greeting.

"I told him you didn't want to see him but he said he wouldn't leave without at least getting to talk to you," Philip whispered to his sister.

Giving a slight nod, Annie waved him away. "Yeah, no, it's okay. I'll handle this," she assured her brother. 

"Okay," Philip gave Steve one last warning look before turning away. "I'll be in the backyard with Julia if you need me."

"Okay." Annie watched him go before turning her attention back to the man waiting for her. "What are you doing here, Steve?"

Reaching up, Steve scratched the back of his neck nervously, his eyes darting around before finally settling on Annie. "I just came to...wow, Annie, you look really good. How are you?"

"I'm fine." Annie folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Steve, why are you here? I thought we were done. You made it pretty clear in your letter that I wasn't worth waiting for."

"Annie, you gotta believe me, ending things with you was the hardest thing I've ever had to do; and frankly, it was the biggest mistake I've ever made." Steve reached out to take one of Annie's hands in his, but she pulled back before he got the chance. "I've missed you like crazy and I can't stop thinking about you. I-I tried to move on but I just couldn't. There isn't anyone else like you, Annie."

Annie took a few moments to process what Steve was saying before she spoke again. "So, what are you saying, Steve? Is that it? Did you just come to tell me that you think we shouldn't have broken up? Because I think ending things between us was a good idea. You obviously didn't support my decision to leave — which is okay, I don't need your support — but it shows that we just aren't meant for each other."

"I was stupid, okay? I admit it, I was a stupid, stupid, idiot." Steve sighed. "I came today to tell you that...well, that I'm pretty sure I'm still in love with you and if you are willing, I would like to give us another chance."

"Another chance?" Annie scoffed. "Steve, I don't know why you thought this was a good idea, but I think you should just go home."

Annie moved to close the door, but before she could, Steve stuck his foot in the crack to hold it open. "Annie, please, don't throw what we had away just because we've been apart for a while."

" _A while?_ " Annie hissed. "Steve, it's been four years since I've last seen you and about two since we were a couple. Me going away and us breaking up wasn't just a little bump in the road of our relationship; it was the end."

"Please." Steve almost begged. "Just, please, try to remember how good we were together. Try to remember how much we loved each other."

Annie was about to push the door shut for good that time, but then all of a sudden, she found herself stopping to actually think back to when she and Steve had been together. "Remember how crazy we were about each other in high school?" Steve continued after seeing the change in Annie's demeanor. "Remember when we used to take walks in the parks and spend whole days together? Remember when we used to talk about the future — about our future? I made a mistake, Annie, but I don't think two people who could ever love each other that much should give up what they had — what we could have again."

"It's been so long..." Annie couldn't believe Steve had actually gotten her to consider his proposition. "I'm a completely different person now. I'm not the Annie you fell in love with."

Steve smiled, and this time when he went to take Annie's hand, she let him. "Then I can't wait to get to know the new you." he lifted her hand up and pressed a soft kiss to the back of it. "I can't wait to fall in love with the new you."

Annie hated that she was blushing, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop. "Gosh, Steve...I really don't know..."

"One date." Steve compromised. "Let me take you out on one date to show you how sorry I am and how much I've missed you. If after that you still don't want to see me anymore, I will respect your decision and leave you alone."

Annie thought for a few seconds. "One date?"

"One date." Steve nodded. "Say, tomorrow night around seven? We can go to dinner at that new diner in town that was put up while you were gone."

Looking over her shoulder as if to make sure none of her family were listening in, Annie finally caved. "Okay, one date." she agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow night. Goodbye, Steve."

"Goodbye, Annie."

Closing the door, Annie collapsed against it and screwed her eyes shut, her entire body filling with regret. How could she let Steve talk her into going out with him again after what he had done to her? Annie could still recall the pain in her chest after she had read the letter where he had ending things with her. Annie could still remember how alone she had felt in the world. 

Then, all of a sudden, the bad thoughts vanished and were replaced with good ones; the ones Steve had told her to think about. Maybe it had hurt so much when he had broken up with her because they were truly meant to be together. Maybe he was right; maybe two people who loved each other so much were supposed to end up together. 

But what would her parents think? God, what would Philip think?

As if on cue, the back door swung open and Philip walked into the house. "So, what did he want?" he inquired. 

"He...just came to welcome me back." Annie lied even though she knew her attempt would end up being futile against Philip; he could always tell when she was lying.

"He came to welcome you back?" Philip cocked a quizzical brow. "That's all? Really?"

Annie didn't say a word as Philip stared back at her, his knowing expression burning her up on the inside before she finally boiled over and gave in. "Fine, he asked me out!" she finally confessed. "Are you happy now?"

Philip snorted. "He asked you out?" he almost thought Annie was lying again. "Well, it doesn't matter one way or the other, because you said no."

Annie avoided eye contact. "Well..."

Philip's eyed widened. "You said no,  _right Annie?_ "

"...no..."

"You said yes?"

"...yes..."

Philip rubbed his hands over his face as he exhaled sharply. "Annie, why would you do that? You do remember when he dumped you through a letter while you were fighting a war in Europe, right? I can't be the only one who remembers that."

"He was very persuasive!" Annie defended herself the best she could. "Besides, it's only one date."

"One date too many."

"He made some good points." Annie tried to explain. "He and I used to be very close. I don't think there's any harm in seeing if there is still anything between us."

For a moment or two, Philip looked like he was about to start lecturing Annie, but at the last second, he changed his mind and took a deep breath. "Well, Annie, you're an adult and if you think this is something worth exploring, I trust you." 

A wide, toothy grin spread across Annie's face. "Thank you, Philip. You're the best."

"I know." Philip rolled his eyes. "I am pretty great, aren't I?" 

"Okay, shut up."

●●●

Placing her palms against her dress, Annie ran her hands down the fabric to smooth it out even though it was already as wrinkle-free as it could possibly be. Steve was supposed to arrive any minute and Annie had just been hit full on by the brunt of her nerves. 

The blonde girl wasn't exactly sure why she was so nervous though because this was Steve, not some new guy she had never gone out with before or someone she was worried about messing up in front of. This wasn't George or Joe. This was Steve. 

Looking back at herself in the mirror, Annie sighed as she observed her dress and her shoes and the way she had done her hair up. For the first time in four years, the girl had even put on makeup. Annie looked the same as she would have when going out on a date with Steve before she had left. 

In many ways, it was like looking at the new Annie in the old Annie's body, and suddenly, she wished she had been wearing her ODs and mud-caked boots more than she ever had in her entire life. 

Stepping back from the mirror, Annie peered out the window and spotted Steve coming down the sidewalk. In a hurry, the blonde rushed from her room, grabbed her bag on the way out, and met the man outside on the porch before he could knock on the door. The last thing Annie needed right then was for her family to start pestering Steve with questions and giving him the third degree. 

"Annie, hi." Steve jumped a little when the door swung open before he could knock. "Wow, you look beautiful." 

"Thank you." Annie quickly closed the door behind herself before taking a moment to look at Steve, and if she was being honest with herself, Annie thought he looked very nice. "You look great as well."

Steve's face lit up as he held out his arm out for Annie to take. "You ready to go?"

Cautiously snaking her arm around Steve's, Annie drew in a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."


	64. Moving On

Reaching for her cup of water, Annie took a sip of the cool liquid in hopes to ease her nerves as she nodded along to Steve's story about how he had gotten a new job as a word processor in one of the more well-known companies in the area. Steve had noticed Annie was a little on-edge and thankfully had taken the lead and done most of the talking thus far.

"And so I've been there for a few months now and I'm quite liking the work." Steve clasped his hands together and smiled. "There's plenty of potential to move up the corporate ladder which is what I think is most exciting about it." 

"It sounds very promising." Annie agreed as her eyes wandered around the diner a little. "I'm really glad to hear that you're enjoying it."

Steve watched as Annie took in the sight of the new restaurant and waited until her wonder had died down a little before speaking again. "So, what about you?" he posed the question once he was sure she was paying attention. "Have you managed to find any work since coming home?"

"No." Annie shook her head. "I'm keeping my eyes peeled but I'm just not finding anything that's really piquing my interest all that much if I'm honest. I mean, after you've been a combat medic for the army it's a little hard to find a job that even comes close to comparing."

"I completely understand." Steve lifted his hands from the table as the waitress came over with their food. After giving her a quick 'thank you', he turned back to Annie and continued the conversation. "But hey, maybe a drastic change would be good. Maybe it will allow you to find something else you're really passionate about."

Grabbing the bottle of ketchup and squirting some beside her fries, Annie gave the suggestion some thought. "Yeah, maybe." she dipped a single fry in some ketchup before plopping it into her mouth. "I think I'm just happy with spending time with my family for the time being. Work will always be there. Family won't."

Steve watched as Annie's face fell for a millisecond before returning to normal again. It was clear to him that she was still dealing with stuff, but the extent of it was something he remained unsure about. "Do you talk about it much?" he decided to ask. "You know, the war. Is it something you talk about?"

"Not really," Annie answered honestly. "Not even with my family, so don't feel like I'm holding out on you or anything. It's just...I'm just not ready yet. There's still a lot I need to process."

"Hey," Steve reached across the table and held Annie's hand. "There's no rush with me, okay? Whenever you're ready to talk, I'm here to listen."

Looking up at Steve, Annie flashed a genuine smile. "Thank you." she was grateful to have found someone other than Philip who seemed to understand that she just needed time; time and patience. 

Throughout the rest of the meal, Annie and Steve chatted about this and that — mostly about what Steve had been up to for the past four years — and eventually, Annie relaxed and opened up a little. She shared a few harmless stories here and there from her training at Toccoa and Mackall and for the first time, Steve didn't seem at all bothered by how often she mentioned the men she served with.

In fact, at one point he even ended up asking about George because he had heard Tim going on and on about him during his radioman phase while visiting the house. So, Annie told Steve about George and how she thought the two of them might get along should they ever end up meeting. 

George was definitely a little goofier and more out there than Steve was, but they shared a lot of the same qualities that Annie admired in a person; which probably explained why she had, at some point or another, had feelings for both of them.

After dinner, Steve ordered two milkshakes to go and the two took a walk in the park that Annie had visited a few days before. With the sun setting in the sky and the fountain in the park's lake filling the area with the beautiful sound of falling water, the former couple reminisced about the time they had spent together before their lives had gone separate ways.

"Oh, do you remember that one time we had planned out that big picnic and spent probably about twenty minutes setting it up and then, out of nowhere, it started to pour down on us?" Annie could barely get the last of her sentence out from her laughter. 

"Everything was soaked!" Steve snickered as he slurped up the last of his milkshake and tossed it into a nearby trashcan. "And then we ran to the car and the seats ended up getting wet. Man, my dad was so mad I got water in his new car."

Annie nodded along. "He didn't let us use it again for months."

"You know, at the time, I thought that day was completely ruined," Steve said as his eyes drifted towards a duck that had just landed in the water. "But now that I look back at it, I think the memory was worth getting a little wet. I'll certainly never forget it, I know that much for sure."

"It was certainly a memorable day." Annie agreed. 

"And then there was that time that guy cut us in line at the movies. You remember that?" Steve moved on to the next story; one he knew Annie knew well.

Rolling her eyes, Annie chuckled. "How could I forget? You decided that the best way to deal with the situation was to punch that guy out."

"What can I say?" Steve shrugged. "I was an angry teenage boy and some guy was being a real asshole while I was out with my girl. As far as I saw it, that was the only logical response."

"Yeah, except we got kicked out and didn't end up seeing the movie anyway." 

"I'm not saying I was smart back then, okay?"

"Okay." Annie finished her milkshake as well and threw the to-go cup away. "That story actually reminds me of when we were all on the boat to England and these two guys in my company, Joe and Bill, got into it and started fighting each other in this cramped space between the beds. God, it was a nightmare. I tried to step in and of course, just my luck, ended up getting elbowed in the face."

Steve looked concerned. "Which of the guys hit you?"

"Joe." Annie waved it off as no big deal. "It's okay though because he took a punch for me in Aldbourne so we're even."

"Ah, well as long as you're even," Steve smirked. "Otherwise I would have had to track him down and bring back some of that good 'ol teenage rage."

Stopping in her tracks, Annie snickered. "You would defend my honour?"

"Yeah, of course, I would." Steve looked around shiftily. "Just, you know, be honest with me. You think I could take him?"

Folding her arms over her chest, Annie looked Steve up and down. "Well, I'm not sure. Joe's pretty scrawny but he's also pretty scrappy and I don't think he ever got rid of his teenage anger; which, in all fairness, does help when killing Nazis." 

"Scrawny and scrappy?" Steve mulled it over for a few seconds. "On second thought, nope. You're on your own, kid."

"Oh, thanks." Annie rolled her eyes before continuing to walk down the path that led back to the main sidewalk. "A real knight in shining armour you are."

"Hey, you're the one who fought the Nazis, not me." Steve held his hands up in defense. "If anything, you're  _my_  knight in shining armour." 

Deep in conversation, Annie and Steve slowly made their way back to Annie's house. By the time they had reached her porch, they were laughing and talking just like they used to. Turning to look at her door, Annie made sure none of her family were watching.

Clearing his throat, Steve caught Annie's attention again. "Well, I don't know about you, but I had fun tonight." 

"Yeah, me too." Annie's fingers fiddled with the hem of her dress. "It was nice to spend time with you again."

"I'm glad you feel that way." Steve shifted his weight from one foot to the other, the look on his face making it obvious that he had something he wanted to say. "Look, Annie, I hate to ask this but I have to know...is there a future for us? Was tonight enough to convince you that I made a mistake and that we should give us another shot?"

Taking a step closer, Annie reached out and grabbed Steve's hand with her own. "I had a great time with you tonight, Steve. For the first time since getting home, I think I actually managed to forget all about the war and completely enjoy myself. The diner was awesome and you were right, that was, in fact, the best burger I have ever had. What I'm trying to say is thank you for an amazing evening."

With his free hand, Steve tucked a loose strand of Annie's blonde hair behind her ear before slowly leaning in for a kiss. Before anything could happen though, Annie held a finger up to his lips to stop him. "But-" she continued.

Slumping his shoulders, Steve groaned. "I was really hoping there wasn't going to be a 'but'."

"I know." Annie felt bad for the man in front of her. "But tonight made me realize that all we have in common anymore is our past, and we can't survive off of old memories alone."

"No, no, no." Steve squeezed Annie's hand. "We can make new memories."

"I don't know if I'm ready for that yet," Annie confessed. "And while it's very obvious how much you've grown and matured since we last spoke — and while I greatly appreciate how willing you are to be patient with me — I don't think it would be fair to you. You deserve someone who can commit themselves fully to you."

Bringing his free hand up, Steve placed his palm on Annie's cheek. "Oh, Annie, don't do this." 

"I have to," Annie told him simply. "I also want you to know that I'm not mad at you for what you did. I'm not mad at you for ending things with me — I see now how hard it was for you when I left. I don't hate you for what you did; in fact, I am grateful for it. You breaking up with me finally allowed me to let go of the last part of my old life that was holding me back so that I could grow into who I am today. I don't hate you, Steve. You're a good man and someday you are going to make some woman very happy. That woman just isn't me."

"Annie-" Steve tried one last time as Annie let go of his hand.

"I'm sorry, Steve." Annie turned and started up the steps to her porch. "Goodbye."

Once inside, Annie shut the door behind herself and stayed frozen in place until she was sure Steve had left. When he was no longer standing in front of her house, she kicked her shoes off and let out a breath she hadn't even known she had been holding in. 

Walking out of the kitchen with a slice of banana bread in hand, Philip gave his sister a lazy wave. "How did it go?"

"It was actually a really great evening." 

"Oh?" Philip cocked a brow. "Does that mean you two are getting back together?"

Placing her bag down, Annie shook her head and took a seat on the steps that went up to the second floor. "No." 

"How come?" Philip came to sit down next to her before breaking his banana bread in half and offering some to her. 

"Thanks." Annie accepted half of her own creation and took a bite. "It just became really clear to me that we've grown apart if that makes sense. We had some really good conversations but they were all about stuff we had done together when we were dating before. It was almost like we couldn't move past the gap in our relationship."

"Hmm." Philip hummed. "Did he ask a lot of questions about war?"

Annie shook her head. "Surprisingly enough, no. He was really understanding about the whole 'not wanting to talk about it' thing and when I did bring it up he didn't get weird about it or follow up with a million different questions. I'm actually kinda sad things didn't work out but I think it's for the best. I'm just not ready. I've changed too much."

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little happy to hear you kicked him to the curb," Philip admitted as he popped the last piece of bread into his mouth. "Mess with my sister once, no second chances for you."

"Oh, big bad Philip." Annie rested her head on her brother's shoulder and exhaled. "What would I do without you?"

"Well, you'd probably have a lot more banana bread left, that's for sure," Philip answered truthfully. "I'm sorry, I can't help myself. It's just so good."

Eating the last bit of her half of bread, Annie smiled. "Yeah, it is pretty good, isn't it?"

"Heck yeah, it is." Philip threw an arm around Annie and hugged her tight. "Hey, good for you for moving on, though."

"Thanks. I just hope it's the right choice."

●●●

Annie had no idea what time it was. All she knew was that it was late, it was dark outside, and it was raining. 

Rolling over, the girl pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes yet again even though this method of trying to force herself to fall asleep had already failed every other time she had tried it. Like most nights, she was having trouble falling asleep. 

Sometimes Annie would try to tire herself out by reading, but whenever she did that she never ended up getting sleepy and just ended up reading until morning, which wasn't any help at all. She tried drinking warm milk, she tried counting invisible sheep, and she even tried doing some breathing exercises her mother had told her about. Everything she tried failed.

With a frustrated and exhausted huff, Annie swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood up. Maybe a walk down to the kitchen to get a glass of water would help in some way. At that point, she was willing to try anything.

Grabbing her housecoat, Annie wrapped the fabric around her body before exiting her room and making her way downstairs. Careful not to wake anyone else, the blonde turned on the kitchen light and poured herself a large glass of cold, refreshing water. 

Taking a sip, Annie sighed. As she stood in the kitchen drinking her water, her eyes drifted over to the already half-eaten loaf of banana bread and she smirked to herself; Philip hadn't been kidding when he said he had eaten a lot of it. 

Lifting the glass to her mouth again, Annie was just about to take another drink when she heard three sharp knocks. Freezing on the spot, Annie listened carefully. The knocks sounded like they might be coming from the front door, but it was so late that there couldn't possibly be anyone on the porch at that time of night. 

So, Annie listened some more. Maybe it was one of her family members getting up to use the bathroom. The house was silent, but then just as she was about to dismiss it as nothing, she heard another three knocks.

Placing her glass down on the counter, Annie made sure her robe was tied on tight as she made her way out of the kitchen. That time there was no denying the knocks had come from the door. 

For a second the thought of the mystery visitor being an angry and vengeful Steve crossed her mind, but Annie dismissed that foolish idea right away. Steve had never been violent — well, except for the movie theatre incident, which as far as she knew was a one-time lapse in judgment.

Unlocking the front door, Annie slowly twisted the doorknob and prayed that she wasn't about the open the door for an intruder or murderer or something. With a hard heave, Annie pulled open the heavy door and gasped when she saw who was standing before her.

Soaking wet from the rain with a bag slung over her shoulder and a look of defeat on her face, Margot stood on Annie's front porch. "Oh, thank God." Margot seemed to relax a little when Annie answered the door. "I was really hoping I had the right address. How horrible would it have been if I had knocked on some stranger's door at midnight?"

"Margot!" Annie didn't even have to think twice before pulling her dripping wet friend in for a hug, which consequently also pulled her into the warm and dry house. "My goodness, what are you doing here? I thought you were going home."

"I did go home." Margot placed her bag onto the floor as the rest of Annie's family began to stir upstairs. "I went home and found out that my father had shot himself and that my house was for sale and that I had nowhere else to go. I really hope you don't mind that I'm here. If it's a problem I can go but I just...Annie, I didn't know what else to do."

Annie's heart sank for her friend. "Oh, of course, you can stay here." she hugged Margot again. "I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Yeah, thanks." Margot wiped some of the rain from her face and forced a quiet laugh as Annie's mother began to come down the stairs. "Who would have thought the hard part about war was returning from it, right?" 


	65. Part of the Family

With two cups of warm coffee in her small hands, Annie moved from the kitchen to the dining table and placed one of the cups in front of a shivering Margot. "Thanks." Margot smiled up at her friend, her teeth chattering at the same time.

"It's not a problem." Annie sat down in the seat next to Margot and placed her own mug down in front of herself. "It's probably not the best coffee but it's definitely better than the stuff we've been drinking for the past four years."

"I don't doubt that for a second." Margot placed her cold hands on the side of the steaming mug and sighed happily as the warmth flowed through her palms and up into her arms. 

Hearing a pair of soft footsteps coming down the staircase, Annie turned in her chair to see her mother arriving with a pile of clothes in her hands. "Will you two go back to bed?" Elaine shooed Tim and Julia away, who were sitting on the steps watching Margot intently. The two younger children moved like they were going to go back upstairs, but as soon as their mother wasn't looking, they sat right back down where they were.

"Here you go, dear." Elaine handed the dry change of clothes to Margot. "I sure hope they fit. Since Annie's clothes would all be much too small I scrounged together an old pair of my pants and a sweater from Philip."

Taking the offering in her arms, Margot gave a curt nod of acceptance. "They should do just fine, thank you. And again, I'm so sorry for intruding so late at night. I had no idea what time I was going to arrive."

"Not to worry." Elaine waved it off. "You must be exhausted after taking buses all the way here from North Carolina. I'll grab some sheets and make up the couch for you."

"Don't bother," Annie told her mother after exchanging a knowing look with Margot. "She can stay in my room with me. We're used to sharing tight quarters."

With a sleepy smile, Elaine tucked her arms tightly against her stomach and sighed. "Well, okay then. You two don't stay up too late, you hear me? You both look pretty tired."

"We won't, Mom." Annie took a sip of her coffee and enjoyed the feeling of the warm liquid rushing down her throat. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Elaine placed a hand on Margot's shoulder. "It was lovely to meet you, Margot. I will see you both in the morning."

Turning towards the steps, Elaine made her way back upstairs, her hands grabbing the shirts of Tim and Julia along the way and pulling them along with her. "Back to bed." she huffed before she and the kids disappeared from sight. 

Once they were alone, Annie reached out and wrapped her hand around Margot's wrist and gave a comforting squeeze. "I'm really sorry to hear about your father." she gave her condolences. "I can't even imagine what it must have been like to get home and...well..."

"It didn't really sink in right away," Margot admitted, her eyes trained on the slowly swirling brown liquid in front of her. Then, as if she suddenly remembered she had it with her, Margot reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the photo of her and her parents and showed it to Annie. "I think I sat out on my porch all night long looking at that. Then, before I knew it, it was morning and I had to sort my shit out. The real estate agent asked if I wanted to keep the house but I knew I couldn't handle that entire property by myself."

Annie scoffed. "I thought you used to do all the work anyway?"

"I did." Margot nodded. "It's just...not the same, you know? I couldn't stay. It didn't feel like home anymore."

"I understand."

"I knew you would." Margot sipped at her coffee. "So, I left — and I knew I wasn't ready to see Joe yet — so I came here. I went to the cemetery first though and I gotta tell you, it was so weird seeing a new gravestone with my father's name on it next to mother's. Then in town, I stopped for some supplies and I ran into Mr. Coulbert and Andrew; you remember me telling you about them?"

Annie gave a small nod. "Yes."

"Andrew — that sweet, quiet boy — ended up fighting in Okinawa; the same war we were supposed to join." Margot's eyes seemed to gloss over for a second. "He wasn't Andrew anymore. He was so different and I don't know why but seeing him like that — like he was just going through the motions of life — really made me realize that things weren't the same anymore. Next thing I know I'm hopping on the next bus heading this way and leaving everything I have behind."

"Oh, Margot." Annie watched as her friend stared blankly down at her coffee. "How about we get you out of those soaking clothes and head to bed?"

Lifting her head slightly, Margot forced a small smile. "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good."

Standing from their seats, the two women shut off the downstairs lights and made their way up Annie's room on the second floor. The two friends had changed in front of each other too many times to count, so without even a second thought, Margot stripped herself of her damp clothes before pulling on the fresh ones Annie's mother had given her. 

Next, the two crawled into Annie's bed and pulled the covers over top of themselves; the rain outside still coming down in sheets and smacking against the window. Reaching over, Annie turned off her lamp and sighed as the room was plunged into darkness.

In silence — save for the sound of the rain — Annie and Margot laid in the dark, their heads propped up by the many pillows. Their breathing was soft and rhythmic but they could both tell that the other one was still awake.

"Do you have trouble sleeping at night?" Annie broke the silence.

Margot didn't answer right away, but after a few seconds, she sort of shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I haven't really been trying to sleep all that much since getting home. I guess I passed out for a while on the bus but I was so exhausted by that point that I don't think anything could have stopped me."

"Hmm."

"Do you have trouble sleeping at night?" Margot returned the question.

"Yeah." Annie shifted slightly so she was looking at Margot. "I always have nightmares."

Margot's eyes drifted to her blonde friend. "What do you have nightmares about?"

"Lots of things." Annie's voice was hushed. "Mostly they're about Bastogne though; about Hoobler, Muck and Penkala, Buck...Bill and Joe. The snow...the red snow. Sitting out in that open field in Foy. Getting hit in the helmet by that bullet. Watching you slowly breaking down. Lots of things."

"Right," Margot muttered. "I don't have to be sleeping to think about those things. They're always there, waiting for me to let my guard down. God, how is the war so much harder  _after_  it's over?"

"I have no idea." Annie reached out and took Margot's hand in her own; relieved to finally have someone around who truly understood what she was going through. "But I'm glad you're here. I missed you."

Letting her eyes fall shut, a small smile spread across Margot's lips. "I missed you too, Annie."

●●●

The next morning, Annie's family finally got the chance to actually meet Margot and get to know her a little bit; despite the fact that they had already heard so much about her in Annie's letters.

Unlike the night before, when she had been cold, damp, and exhausted, Margot was in much higher spirits and was more than happy to answer any and all questions that Annie's younger siblings could come up with. Margot didn't mind the constant chatter at all because it allowed her to forget about everything she had been dealing with for the past week or so. 

So, as she sat at the table eating a piece of Annie's banana bread, Margot dove right into telling Tim and Julia about the dreaded spaghetti incident at Toccoa and why it was the reason she was sure she would never eat spaghetti again for as long as she lived. 

Even Philip and Annie's parents snickered a few times during the story; having recalled a mention of the incident in one of the letters they had gotten but never having been told the full tale. 

After Arthur and Philip had left for work and Tim and Julia had gone out back to play, Annie and Margot helped Elaine clean up from breakfast. "I love your big family." Margot gushed as she handed a half-empty plate to Annie. "I wish I had siblings."

"I love them but they can certainly get annoying at times." Annie laughed as she peered out the back window at her younger siblings. "Plus, with so many people in the house, it's almost impossible to ever get some time alone. There are ups and downs to a big family."

"Maybe just one sibling then." Margot compromised. "I always wanted a younger sister. Julia is just so adorable."

"Hey!" Annie feigned hurt. "You're picking a younger sister from this household and you don't pick me?"

Margot shrugged as Elaine let out a small chuckle. "What can I say? She showed me her drawings and now she's my favourite person in the world."

"Suit yourself." Annie pointed a fork at Margot for emphasis. "But I  _will_  remember this the next time you need a favour from me."

" _Okay then_ ," Margot rolled her eyes. "But you know you're like a sister to me already anyway. After everything you've done for me, how could you not be?"

As she washed the dishes in the sink, Elaine smiled softly to herself, happy to finally see Annie so comfortable around someone again. The woman had only just met Margot Kessler, but she felt as though she were a part of the family already. "So, what have you two got planned for the rest of the day?" she asked, her back still turned to the two girls.

Annie and Margot exchanged a look and shrugged. "Well, we haven't really gotten that far yet," Annie replied. "But, if Margot's planning on staying a while, maybe I should show her around town a little? It would be nice to have someone to walk with. When I'm alone I always feel like people are watching me."

"Oh, that would be awesome!" Margot jumped at the chance to get out of the house and do some normal people things. "But, ugh, I really feel like I should ask again. You guys are sure it's okay that I stay here? Because I have some cash to get a hotel room or something if there isn't enough room."

Lifting her gloved, soapy hand out of the sink, Elaine dismissed the worry with a wave. "Nonsense!" she shook her head. "You're family and family doesn't stay in hotels. As long as you're okay with staying in Annie's room, we are more than happy to have you here as long as you need." 

"Thank you," Margot swore her eyes teared up a bit at being called family. "I really cannot even begin to tell you how much I appreciate this."

"You've had a rough time." Annie rested a hand on her friend's shoulder. "We're happy to help; and if nothing else, for purely selfish reasons, I'm glad you're here so I have someone to hang out with." 

"I'm perfectly fine with that." Margot beamed. "Okay, come on, let's go into town. I've forgotten what it's like to just be out with nothing to do and I'm welcoming all distractions right now."

Waving a goodbye to her mother, Annie grabbed Margot's hand and lead her toward the front door. For the first time since returning to her normal life, things were  _actually_  beginning to feel normal. 


	66. Like That Again

"So, tell me, how has being back with your family been?" Margot inquired, her hands shoved into her pockets as she walked side-by-side with Annie down the sidewalk into town. 

"For the most part, it has been really good," Annie answered honestly. "But, you know, there have been hiccups here and there. Sometimes it feels like I'm an outsider to them if that makes sense."

Margot squinted her eyes up at the sun and took note of the clear blue sky. "It makes perfect sense. It's like the world completely flipped on its head while we were gone. How is it that things changed so much in four years? It's crazy...but also, I don't completely hate it. It's almost like starting over in a whole new world, which is exactly what I need right now."

"I wish I could start over sometimes," Annie admitted as she led Margot around a corner toward her favourite ice cream shop. "Are you tired of the questions yet? Because I feel like I might explode if someone asks me one more question about what it was like over there."

"I haven't really had anyone around to ask me questions." Margot sighed. "You are the first person I've really talked to it about."

A small smile played at the corners of Annie's mouth. "Well, rest assured I won't ask you any dumb questions. I'm pretty sure I know all of the answers already."

"Yeah, you probably do." Margot smiled down at her friend. "Gosh, you know, I didn't think I could miss someone so much after only being apart for a week or so but I really missed you."

"I missed you too." Annie returned the sentiment as she reached for the ice cream shop door and held it open for her friend.

Once inside the cool, air-conditioned shop, the two women spent way too long looking at the menu — Annie commenting that she didn't remember there being that many choices the last time she had been there — and eventually ordered their cones. 

Annie decided to go with her all-time favourite flavour, chocolate swirl, and Margot finally settled on strawberry. With sweet treats in hand, the two women paid before making their way back outside into the hot Connecticut afternoon. 

"I haven't had ice cream in ages," Margot commented before taking the first lick. "Like, even before I joined the Paratroopers. 

"I'm just happy to be eating a dessert other than those damn chocolate bars." Annie started on her cone as well before it could melt in the warm weather.

Margot paused for a minute, her eyes drifting down to Annie's cone and then back up at her. "But you got chocolate flavoured ice cream."

Annie froze, her tongue midway through a lick. "...but it's not in bar form," she said after pulling her tongue back into her mouth. "And this chocolate isn't as hard as a rock from freezing in Bastogne or molded into a new shape after melting and then re-solidifying at the bottom of somebody's pack."

"That's a fair point." Margot acknowledged. "The only chocolate I could eat was the Hershey bars. The rest just tasted like chalk to me."

"I'm not convinced they  _weren't_  chalk." Annie chuckled. 

Margot nodded. "Still would have been better than half the stuff we ate anyway."

After finishing their frozen treats, the two women wandered around town some more and Annie took Margot to all of her favourite places to visit. The two stopped by the museum, a cute little second-hand shop, a fabulous boutique, and to finish the day off they stopped by the local pet shop to look at all the adorable animals for sale; something Annie used to do with her younger siblings all the time. 

Margot thoroughly enjoyed touring Annie's hometown and was delighted to find that she wasn't constantly thinking about her own home or her father or any of the other million things that had slowly been eating away at her lately. For the time being, she was simply enjoying the moment; something she hadn't been able to do in years.

With the torturous summer heat dying down and the sun beginning to make its descent for the evening, Annie and Margot began to make their way back to the house. Like many times before, they walked side by side, but this time was different; this time they weren't wearing their gear, this time they weren't in some war-torn part of Europe, and this time they weren't soldiers fighting for their lives.

This time they were just two women enjoying a nice walk in New Haven, Connecticut on a warm summer evening. 

"What do you think the guys are up to?" Margot asked out of nowhere, her question breaking the quaint silence.

Annie thought for a moment. "Well, which guys?"

"All of them."

"Well, I don't know about all of them." Annie chortled. "I could probably make some educated guesses for a few of them. Like Liebgott, I bet he's back home driving his cab just like he said he would. Luz is probably spending a lot of time with his family like I am. Nixon is probably curled up somewhere warm and happy with a bottle of Vat 69 and Bull is probably back home in the South doing some big, strong farm boy stuff like lifting hay bales or something."

Margot laughed a little at Annie's last two predictions before adding some herself. "I think Bill's probably home with his lovely lady Frances."

"Frances?"

"Mhmm." Margot nodded. "He didn't talk about her a whole lot because I think it made him think about the fact that he may never see her again too much, but sometimes when we were in England or somewhere less terrifying than the front lines he would mention her once or twice."

"Good for him."

Margot smiled to herself at the thought of Bill being back home with the love of his life and finally out of a hospital. "Yeah, I hope he's doing well."

"I hope they're all doing well," Annie concluded. "I hope Toye's doing well."

Margot watched out of the corner of her eye as Annie smirked up at her, the knowing look on her face full of smugness and amusement. "I hope he's doing well too." Margot finally gave in. 

A small giggle escaped Annie. "I bet you do."

" _Annie,_ " Margot warned.

"What?" the smaller girl couldn't hide her excitement about the subject. "You never talk about him but I can tell you want to. Margot, I think the only thing more obvious than my romance novel love triangle was you and Toye. You guys were a good team. Hell, you told him about D-day before you even told me."

"He was just kind of there when I finally felt ready to talk about it." Margot shrugged it off as no big deal. "And, yeah, I miss him a lot and I know I said a lot of stuff in the moment when he was hit but I have no idea if he still...well, I just don't really know where we stand anymore."

Annie sighed as they turned onto her street. "Well, what about the letters? You guys were writing back and forth, right?"

"We were," Margot confirmed. "I sent him a short letter the day we found out the war was over and I haven't heard anything back since. Granted, I've moved around quite a bit, but while I was home I got nothing."

"Maybe you should write him again?" Annie suggested. "Maybe his letter got lost or something."

"Maybe." Margot tried not to let the conversation get her down too much. "Well, either way, it's not something I'm too worried about right now. I've got bigger problems on my plate for the time being"

"Okay." Annie jogged up her driveway and onto the porch to open the front door. She was about to say something else but at the last second changed her mind and dropped the subject. She trusted Margot to come to her with any issues she may have, so when she was ready, she would talk about Joe Toye.

After their day spent in town, Annie went to the kitchen to help her mother with dinner while Margot headed upstairs to take a shower. The raven-haired woman had offered to lend a hand with the meal preparation as well but before she could even get the full sentence out she was shooed out of the kitchen by the two Winslow women and told to relax before dinner.

So, without much resistance due to her sweaty state, Margot headed up the steps to take a much-needed shower. The room-temperature water on her skin helped to cool her from the day's heat while also rinsing her body of the sweat it had collected over the hours spent in the sun. A nice, long shower that wasn't limited to five minutes was something Margot definitely enjoyed about being home again — or being in  _a_  home again; not necessarily her own.

With shampoo in her hair and the shower stream running over her shoulders, Margot found herself deep in thought, wondering intently about when — or if — she would have a home to call her own again. Where would it be? Would it be right there in New Haven or would it be somewhere else? If the ladder were true, where would that somewhere else be?

Before she could get too distracted by her contemplation, Margot snapped back into reality and quickly rinsed herself before shutting the water off. With a towel wrapped tightly around her body, she stepped out onto the bath mat and dried off, her eyes avoiding the mirror at all costs. Margot hated seeing herself in the mirror; or more accurately, hated seeing her scars in the mirror. 

As fast as she could, the taller woman pulled on a fresh outfit and sighed happily at the feeling of the clean fabric against her clean body; a feeling she had only felt about a handful of times throughout the entire war — usually both her and her uniform had been caked in mud, blood, sweat, and a slew of other things, and on the off chance she was given a chance to freshen up, it was either a clean body or clean ODS, rarely ever both. 

Once she was dressed, Margot hung the towel back up, headed for the door, and pulled it open. Before she could step out into the hall, however, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and froze. Slowly, the woman turned toward the glass and took in her reflection. Her eyes looked slightly sunken in and dull and her complexion looked as if it had seen better days, but she noted clear improvements since she had last looked at herself. The most noticeable thing that stood out were the scars on the side of her face  — the ones she had gotten in Haguenau whilst trying to save Jackson from his own grenade blast. 

The scars were small and barely noticeable by then, but they were still there, and probably always would be — a constant reminder of her time spent in Europe; a constant reminder of one of the many times she had almost died. 

Then, almost like she couldn't help herself from looking, Margot lifted up her shirt to reveal the much larger, much gnarlier scar on her ribcage from D-day — a constant reminder of the very worst day of her entire life. 

As her eyes drifted up from her side, Margot caught someone standing in the doorway and jumped, dropping her shirt back down in the process. "You scared me!" she turned to see Philip standing there.

"I'm sorry." he immediately apologized. "I was just passing by and I saw you and...damn, that's a pretty impressive scar."

Margot scoffed. "I don't know if 'impressive' is the word I would use. More like 'unfortunate'." 

"I think it looks cool."

"Well, that makes one of us." Margot pushed some of her wet hair behind her ear. "But, thank you, I guess. Sure looks better than it felt, I can tell you that much."

Philip folded his arms over his chest and smirked. "That must be the wound Annie told us about in her letters; the one you refused to go to the hospital for."

"That would be the one." Margot patted her side gently over the spot where the scar was. "I was...stupidly stubborn; on more than one occasion."

"Hey, I don't think it's stupid to not want to leave behind your fellow soldiers," Philip said. "I think it's brave."

Margot smiled softly. "Brave certainly does sound better than stupid, doesn't it?"

"It does."

Before either one of the two could say something else, Elaine called up to them that dinner was ready. Stepping out of the bathroom, Margot followed Philip down the steps to join the rest of the Winslow family for the evening meal. 

Like usual, dinner was spent talking, laughing, and telling stories. It was a dinner unlike one Margot had seen since before her mother had passed, and right off the bat, she could tell she could get used to it again fairly easily. Having people to chat with while eating reminded Margot of almost every meal she and Annie had shared with the men of Easy Company; it reminded her of some of the few times she had seen smiles on everyone's' faces despite the fact that they were all playing fast and loose with death on a daily basis.

After eating, Margot insisted on helping clean up even though both Elaine and Annie told her not to worry about it. Margot couldn't help it though, she already felt guilty enough about not doing a single thing to help make the meal, so the least she could do was assist in the tidying up after. 

Once everything was washed, dried, and put away, Elaine thanked everyone for their help and the family began to go their separate ways. Philip headed up to his room, Tim went out back to play a little while longer, and Arthur went upstairs with Julia to help get her bath ready. 

Just as she was about to leave the kitchen, Elaine paused and reached for an envelope on the counter. "Oh, I almost forgot." she handed the single piece of mail over to her daughter. "This came for you today while the two of you were out."

Annie's eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion as she took the envelope from her mother. "Thanks." she flipped it over to read who it was from, still wondering who had written to her. As soon as her eyes landed on the name of the sender, however, she smiled wide. 

"I'll leave you to it." Elaine turned and headed toward the laundry room to throw in one last load for the evening. 

Peering over her smaller friend's shoulder, Margot tried to get a look at the letter. "Who's it from?" she asked.

Using her finger to point out the name, Annie let out a small chuckle. "Captain Miller." she began to carefully open the envelope. As soon as she pulled the paper out and unfolded it, she read it out loud to both herself and Margot.

 

_Dear Antonia Winslow,_

_It is with great pride that I write to you, congratulating you on a successful deployment in Europe along with Miss. Kessler and the rest of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne._

_When the idea of women in war was first brought to me, I must admit, like many others, I believed it was a joke. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think a woman could fight as fiercely and as bravely as a man could — but then I opened my mind and started looking at it from another angle; maybe women couldn't fight as well as men could...maybe they could fight better._

_Camp Mirage was the result of this new found perspective I had gained, but even as I watched bus after bus arrive that day that seems so very long ago, each one holding hopeful and eager women, a small part of myself still held doubt; doubt that only fully went away after I received the incredible news that both you and Miss. Kessler have returned home safely after two years of training and two years of war._

_Every time I received an update of your statuses at war, I found myself being more and more blown away by how the two of you completely defied all odds; especially you, Annie._

_I am fully convinced that the two of you are and will always be the greatest accomplishment in my career and life, and for that I thank you. I thank you for being brave enough to step up to a task that many deemed improper, I thank you for having enough courage and drive to keep pushing forward when others tried to hold you back, and I thank you for proving without a shadow of a doubt that the impossible isn't always impossible; that women do, in fact, belong in war._

_I will forever be humbled and honoured to have known you, Sergeant Winslow, and should you ever find yourself looking for a place to call home, Camp Mirage will always welcome you back with open arms._

_Sincerely,_

_Captain J. Miller_

 

After the letter had been read, the two women stood there for a while longer, their eyes both scanning the page over and over again. "He must have sent yours to your old address," Annie commented after reading through the letter for the second time in her head. 

"Yeah." Margot nodded slightly as she gently took the paper from her friend's hands. "I can't believe he remembered us. We were only at Camp Mirage for five days."

Annie felt a happiness spread through her. "I'll never forget those five days. I met you during those five days. My life began during those five days. I proved to myself that I was more than just a housewife in the making during those five days. Those are probably the best five days of my life."

"Mine too." Margot agreed. "God, I wish we could go back to how we were then. We were taking risks and actually doing something with ourselves. We weren't just surviving; we were _living_."

"It can be like that again." Annie reminded her friend. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life just surviving. We are free now to do anything we want. The only thing holding us back is ourselves."

"It can be like that again," Margot repeated, almost like she had to hear the words come out of her own mouth before she could believe them. "It  _should_  be like that again."


	67. Living

"Are you actually going to do it?" Annie turned her head so she could look at the woman next to her in bed, her excitement much too intense for her to even think about sleeping at the moment.

Margot let a small smile spread across her face as she stared up at the ceiling. "I don't know...maybe." she kept her answer vague so as to not get Annie's hopes up too high. "I really want to but I just don't even know where I would start. I don't even know where he lives."

"Well, hear me out here," Annie propped herself up on her elbow. "but you could always just write to him and  _ask_."

"I would, but the last letter I received from him was from the hospital and he's supposed to be home now." Margot fiddled with her fingers slightly. "I have no idea where he is and he has no idea where I am." 

Annie thought for a moment. "Well, I'm sure someone knows where he is. Maybe Bill?"

"Yeah...but what if I scare him off or something?" Margot inquired, suddenly finding herself worrying about things that she never thought would even cross her mind in a million years. "What if he doesn't want to see me?"

Annie scoffed and leaned over so she was looking Margot dead in the eyes. "Okay, first of all, he is a man, not a small woodland animal." she addressed the first irrational worry to come out of her friend's mouth. "And secondly, of course, he wants to see you, Margot. The way he used to look at you — the way you used to look at him —, it would be a tragedy of the ages if the two of you just forgot about it all and never saw each other again. If for no other reason, do it for me. Please."

" _Do it for you?_ " Margot laughed quietly, trying not to wake the rest of Annie's family that were fast asleep in their own bedrooms. "You could just as easily do it for yourself, you know. George only lives in Rhode Island, which is like an hour and a half drive."

"This isn't about me." Annie shook her head and waved away Margot's attempt to change the subject. 

"Why not?" Margot rolled onto her side and looked up at Annie. "You told me he kissed you and by the sounds of it, it wasn't completely horrible. So, why not go for it?"

Annie shrugged the best she could in her position. "Because the exact same thing could be said for Liebgott and I just don't really feel like trying to deal with that right now."

"Well, I think you're going to have to deal with it eventually." Margot tried to reason with her friend. "It would be a tragedy of the ages if the three of you just forgot about it all and never saw each other again."

"Hey!" Annie laughed. "You can't use my own words against me."

"Why not?" Margot cocked a brow. "They're good words. Very wise."

Fluffing her pillow and repositioning herself so that she was sitting up, Annie rested her hands in her lap and sighed. "So, are you going to see Joe?" Annie made an attempt to steer the conversation back to its origin. "I think you would regret it if you didn't."

"Yeah," Margot pushed herself up as well. "You're probably right. You're always right."

Leaning her head against Margot's arm, Annie stared out of her window and made an attempt to count how many stars she could see. "I  _am_  always right." she snickered. "Thank you for acknowledging that."

"Thank you for always being there for me." Margot wrapped her arm around Annie and joined her in peering out the window into the dark night sky. "Do you really think he'll be happy to see me?" 

"I think he'd be a fool not to be," Annie replied truthfully. "And, worst-case scenario, you can come back here. Like my mom said, you're family. You're always welcome here, you know that, but I think you should do this. You'll hate yourself if you don't try. You'll hate yourself if you don't live for once instead of just surviving."

"Thanks, Annie."

"You're welcome, Margot." 

●●●

After a few days of planning and spending more time with Annie and her family, Margot was finally ready to head out on her own again. She had decided that the best thing to do would be to go and see Bill in Philadelphia and see if he had any idea where Joe had gone after the two of them had left the hospital in Georgia. 

It was hard for the raven-haired woman to leave her best friend again, but she knew that if she stayed Annie would only keep bugging her to go; Annie was good that way, always knowing what was best for someone even if they didn't know it themselves. 

"I wish I could stay a little longer." Margot sighed as she looked down at her packed bag with a slight feeling of sadness in her heart. "It really does feel like saying goodbye to family when I say goodbye to you."

Annie only smiled and pulled her taller friend in for a much-needed hug. "Just like I said at the train station, this isn't goodbye," she told her. "Just 'see you later'. We are going to see each other again, I know it."

"Right." Margot nodded. "See you later."

With that, Margot turned to the rest of Annie's family and gave them all hugs as well, thanking each and every one of them for being so kind to her and for welcoming her into their home. "You make sure you come back and visit, dear." Elaine gave Margot a warm smile. "It was delightful having you with us. The way Annie described you in her letters doesn't even begin to compare to how lovely you are in person."

Margot blushed a little before moving on to Philip. "It was good to meet you." Margot hugged Annie's older brother. "You make sure Annie doesn't get into any trouble while I'm gone."

"I'll try my best." Philip chuckled. 

Once she had given her personalized goodbyes, Margot grabbed her bag and stepped out onto the front porch, Annie following her and closing the door behind herself. "You know, the last time we parted ways I knew it wasn't going to be for very long. I don't know how, but I just knew." Annie admitted. "But this time it feels different. This time it feels like it's going to be a while until I see you again. You're moving on and taking risks. You're  _living_."

"You should be living too." Margot placed a hand on Annie's shoulder as the cab she had called pulled up next to the curb. "What are you gonna do?"

"Oh, I don't know." Annie shrugged. "I'm sure I'll figure it out though, so there's no need for you to worry about me. I'll probably find a job and then go from there. I'll be okay."

Margot's smile was a little lopsided but never for a second anything less than genuine. "I'm going to write to you once I get to Bill's. I'll keep in touch. I promise."

"You better." Annie gently swiped Margot's hand off of her shoulder. "Now get outta here. Go and live your life."

"See you later." Margot waved as she started down the porch steps and towards the cab.

Annie waved back, a melancholy feeling in the pit of her stomach but a smile on her face nevertheless. "See you later."

Opening the back door of the yellow vehicle, Margot slid into the seat and plopped her bag down next to her. "Train station please," she told the driver, her eyes still set on the smaller blonde woman who was waving goodbye. 

As the vehicle pulled away from the house and Annie got smaller and smaller in the rear window, Margot finally felt a sense of confidence wash over her; a confidence that had been missing ever since returning to the states. Finally, for the first time in weeks, she felt like she knew what she was doing. 

Margot had no idea how her journey of finding Joe would pan out, or if she would ever even find him at all, but the possibility of seeing him again filled her with determination and anticipation. Maybe the saying that you never really know how much you miss someone until they're gone is true, but for Margot, she didn't need some silly saying to really know how she felt about the man she had given her dog tags to all those months ago. 

Margot was never really open about it, and although the feelings inside of herself did tend to swirl around and mix together so much that it was often hard to know exactly what was what, she did know that Joe Toye was someone who was undoubtedly special to her. 

After losing her mother and now her father, Margot knew she didn't want to lose anyone else; not if she had a say in it. 

When the cab finally arrived at the train station and Margot had nowhere left to go but away, she paid the driver and stepped out onto the curb. With her bag in her hand and all the money she owned on her person, Margot walked into the station, bought a train ticket to Philadelphia, and boarded the train. 

In four hours Margot would be in the hometown of not only Bill but Babe as well. She was excited, sure, but she was also nervous. Margot had never known anyone from the war outside of the war except for Annie. 

A weird part of her questioned whether or not these men were still her friends after the uniforms were taken off, the dirt was washed away, and the tragedy was behind them. 

A few days earlier Margot had sent a letter to Bill telling him that she was coming to visit, and although she knew there was no time for him to receive the letter and write back to her before she left, she hoped the little bit of heads up would be enough. 

Bill had always talked about returning home to his fiance Frances both during the war and in his letters, so more than anything Margot hoped he was doing well. She hoped her friend was adjusting to civilian life better than most and she hoped he was dealing with the loss of his leg as well as he possibly could.

In the grand scheme of things, however, Margot really had no idea what to expect; so, in true Paratrooper nature, she held her head high, put on a brave face, and awaited whatever was to come her way. 


	68. Philadelphia

With the sound of the loud, blaring train horn as the locomotive pulled into the Philadelphia train station, Margot ripped her head off of the window — where it had been resting as she slept — and she sat upright. With bleary eyes and a slightly fogged head, it took the woman a few seconds to pull herself back into reality and realize what was going on. By the time the train attendant announced that they had arrived in Philadelphia, however, she completely remembered what had happened.

For a few short moments, it had all seemed like a dream; every last second of it. Returning from war, going home, finding out her dad had died, going to see Annie, leaving to find Bill — all of it felt like one big elaborate dream, and when she awoke with her head pressed against the cool glass of the window instead of the ground somewhere in Europe, she almost couldn't believe it. 

As the train slowed to a stop and the people around her jumped to their feet, Margot shook the dazed feeling from her head and joined them, her bag over her shoulder and the letter with Bill's address in it in her hand. Thankfully, Bill had given her his address early on in the letter exchanging, and thankfully, she hadn't lost it. 

Stepping out onto the station platform and pushing her way through the bustling crowds of people, Margot worked her way toward the entrance where she could hopefully catch a cab. Since she had caught an early train, it was only about noon, so with the hot afternoon sun blaring down on her, the woman stood on the curb with her arm in the air. After a minute or so, a yellow vehicle pulled up next to her and she hopped in, immediately relishing in the feeling of being out of the all-consuming heat. 

Turning around in his seat, the driver — an older man with gray hair and a cap on — flashed a welcoming smile. "Where to, ma'am?"

"Ugh," Margot unfolded the letter and scanned for the address. "Here." she showed the letter to the man and pointed out the street name and house number. 

"Sure thing." he nodded before turning back around and putting the vehicle into drive. As the cab pulled away from the curb, Margot drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes, her mind immediately wandering to the last time she had seen Bill; the memory was clear as day — one she could never forget even if she tried. 

She remembered seeing him sitting there against the tree, his leg blown apart beyond recognition and the snow around him painted with bright red blood, but yet, somehow, he was smiling and cracking jokes. The last thing he had told her and Annie was to be careful and not get themselves killed, and in a moment of almost selfish pride, she smiled at the fact that she had managed to stand by his final request. 

Somehow, someway, she had managed to survive the war with only a few scars, which was more than she could say for a lot of her brothers in arms. 

Hearing a voice that didn't belong to her subconscious, Margot blinked a few times and looked back up at the driver. "I'm sorry." she apologized for zoning out. "Did you say something?"

"I was just asking if you lived here or if you were visiting." he chuckled at her slightly bewildered tone.

"Oh." Margot sighed. "Just visiting."

"It really is a great city." he kept up the small talk as he turned off of the main road and into a more residential area. "I've lived here all my life."

Margot smiled and gave a small nod even though the driver's eyes were focused on the road, but didn't answer. Her nerves were much too intense for her to desire much talking at the moment, so she hoped the driver would catch on and continue the ride in silence, which he did.

After about another five minutes of driving down residential roads with small, cute little homes that lined the streets — many with kids playing out front or women doing yard work — the cab pulled over to the curb and stopped in front of a completely normal-looking blue house. There was a single car in the driveway and the windows were closed with the curtains drawn, probably in an attempt to keep out the heat. It almost looked too normal, and if it weren't for the large numbers beside the door that matched the ones in the letter, Margot would have sworn there was no way Bill lived there. 

"Here we are, ma'am." the driver turned back around again. "I hope you enjoy your visit."

Handing over the appropriate amount of cash, Margot thanked the driver before stepping out of the vehicle and onto the sidewalk. As the cab pulled away, Margot was struck with flashbacks of when she had first arrived at Annie's house and how the feeling was almost the same; she was almost frozen with an all-consuming fear that whoever was inside the house wouldn't be happy to see her; the only differences being that it wasn't the middle of the night and it wasn't raining.

Margot almost turned around to head down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. Maybe this was all a big mistake. Maybe this little adventure of hers was stupid and foolish. But then Margot remembered her promise to Joe; her promise to see him again and collect her dog tags. Even though it would have been so easy for her to just give up and forget the past four years of her life never happened, she couldn't. 

Finally, after copious amounts of internal debating, Margot walked up to the front door, her heart pounding in her chest and her grip on her bag weakening due to the perspiration that was gathering on her palm. Then, in a split second, now or never decision, she raised her free hand and knocked on the front door three times. 

Margot knew that if there had been adequate time she would have regretted her action immediately, but only mere seconds after knocking, the door swung open and a woman stood before her. Margot instantly knew the beautiful, dark-haired, bright-eyed woman was Frances even though she had never seen her before in her life; Bill's descriptions couldn't have been more spot-on if he had tried. 

"Hello." Frances eyed Margot quizzically, obviously having no clue who she was at first glance. "Can I help you?"

"Hi." Margot adjusted the bag strap on her shoulder. "I'm Margot Kessler."

France's face instantly lit up and she pulled Margot in for a tight hug. "It's so good to finally meet you." she gushed, her reaction alleviating most of Margot's nerves right off the bat. "Bill has told me so much about you! Wow, I can't believe you're actually here."

"I-I hope that's alright." Margot's eyes shifted over France's shoulder to look into the house. "I did send a letter but I think I got here before it did. I just came to visit and, well...talk to Bill about a few things." 

"Oh, it's more than alright." Frances stepped back into the house and motioned for Margot to follow her. "Bill is going to be so thrilled to see you. He hasn't seen much of anyone since getting back from the hospital. To be honest, I think he's getting a little sick of me." 

Margot laughed, glad to see that Frances was also equally as friendly as she was beautiful. Bill really had snagged himself quite the catch. "Trust me, after how fondly he used to talk about you and how much he missed you, I don't think he will ever get sick of you."

"Well, I hope you're right." Frances took Margot's bag from her and set it down beside the door. "Bill should just be sitting on the deck out back. Go on through and say hello."

"Okay, thank you." Margot left her stuff with Frances and made her way through the small but warm and cozy home. Upon reaching the back door, her breath caught in her throat when she spotted the man she hadn't seen in months through the screen door. 

Bill was sitting in a lawn chair on the deck, his back to the door and a drink in his hand. Absentmindedly, Margot's eyes drifted down to his legs, and under the bottom of the chair and because he was wearing shorts, she saw the prosthetic leg that he had complained about so many times before in his letters; the damn leg that he said caused him more pain than losing his real one had. 

Stepping forward, Margot pushed the door open with a faint squeak from the old and worn-out hinges and stepped out onto the wooden deck. "I was beginning to wonder if the sink had swallowed you whole while you were doing dishes," Bill spoke, his Philly accent just as strong as ever as he kept his back turned to the door, clearly believing it was his fiance who had come to see him.

Margot chuckled a little, the sound of his voice bringing a happy grin to her face. "Well, you know me. I never was very good at doing chores," she answered. 

Instantly recognizing that the voice didn't belong to his fiance, Bill craned his neck to look back, and when his eyes landed on Margot, his mouth fell open. "Holy-" he set his beer down on the ground beside himself and slowly pushed himself to his feet again  — struggling a little with the prosthetic leg but still making it seem pretty seamless. 

"Hey, Gonorrhea." Margot stood across from a face she hadn't set eyes on in what seemed like forever. "Good to see you."

Bill cracked a smirk and pulled Margot in for a hug, much like Frances had done earlier. "You know I fucking hate that nickname," he muttered into her hair as he squeezed her tight, almost like he needed to prove she was really there.

"I know." she struggled to hold back the tears that were beginning to well up in her eyes. "But it's just too goddamn funny."

The two stood there holding each other for probably two minutes or so, neither one speaking or even moving a muscle. Frances was standing by the back door at that point, but she didn't dare interrupt the reunion, so instead, she just watched with a joyous smile spread across her face. 

"God, I missed you so much." Margot stepped back from the hug and wiped the tears the had yet to fall. "It was so hard without you. When you left I...I...it was hard."

Bill placed both hands on Margot's face and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I wish I could have been there," he told her. 

Without thinking, Margot grabbed onto him again and tried to push all the bad thoughts away. "I'm glad you weren't," she admitted. 

"I missed you too." Bill sighed and continued to embrace her. "Glad to see you didn't go and get yourself killed."

The corners of Margot's mouth curled. "I sure as hell tried a few times." she chuckled. 

"Well, then I'm glad to see that none of your attempts were successful."

"I'm glad to see that you're doing well." Margot finally released the man. "You have a wonderful home and an even more wonderful fiance."

Bill nodded and looked down at his leg. "Yup, one and a half legs and all."

Margot exhaled as she studied his prosthetic. "Still no full disability?"

"Nope." 

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It wasn't you who blew my fuckin' leg off."

"I'm still sorry."

"And I appreciate it." Bill placed a hand on Margot's shoulder. "So, what brings you down to Philly?"

Margot smirked. "What, I can't just come to visit my old friend?"

"You can." Bill rolled his eyes. "But I have a feeling that's not all you're here to do."

"You're a smart man. No wonder they made you Platoon Sergeant." Margot gave him a hardy, friendly clap on the arm. "I do actually have some ulterior motives. I was wondering if you knew anything about where Joe went after the two of you were released from the hospital."

Bill grinned wide. "So you're looking for Joe, huh?"

"You seem surprised."

"No." Bill motioned for Margot to come with him back inside the house just as Frances pushed the back door open. "Not surprised, happy. And lucky for you, you came to the right man." 


	69. The Three Muskateers

After a wonderful dinner made by Frances that left Margot with a full stomach and a content smile on her face, she joined Bill on the couch in the living room and mouthed a 'thank you' when the woman placed a steaming cup of tea down in front of her. 

Picking up the mug with two hands, Margot blew softly on the liquid for a few seconds before taking a sip. With a slight recoil at the hot temperature, she set the mug back down, her tongue stinging a little from the heat. 

"I'm still so used to hot drinks never actually being hot." Margot chuckled as she sat back into the couch and tucked her legs underneath herself. 

"It took me a while to get used to that as well." Bill agreed as he shifted slightly, a look of discomfort on his face as he winced. 

Sitting down on the chair beside the couch, Frances leaned over and gently rested her hand on Bill's leg where the skin met the prosthetic. With a squeeze, she looked up at him. "Still hurts?"

"Ah, it's okay." Bill's hand moved over top of France's as he flashed her a reassuring smile. "I'll be okay."

Margot watched as the two conversed, almost as if she were a fly on the wall. It brought her great joy to see just how well Bill was being taken care of and it alleviated all of the worries she ever held for him. Even just based on the few hours she had been there, Margot could already tell that Bill was in good hands and that he was as happy as he could possibly be. Frances was his ray of sunshine after a long, cold, hard winter. 

After the couple shared a quick kiss, Frances turned to Margot and clasped her hands together. "So, you have to tell me, what was it like spending years surrounded by nothing but men?" she giggled softly as she peered at Bill out of the corner of her eye. "If they were all anything like Bill over here, I'm sure it must have been horrible."

Bill scoffed. "Hey, I was a good boy."

"Yeah, well, now there's actually someone here who can tell me the truth." Frances gave him a pat on the thigh. 

Margot shook her head. "Actually, it wasn't as bad as it seems. After the first few weeks of boot camp the guys started to open up to the concept of women in the army; not that they had much of a choice one way or the other though. It did help that I wasn't the only woman, however."

"Right." Frances nodded as she took the first sip of her own tea. "Annie, right? The medic?"

"Yup, I actually just came from her place."

Bill's eyebrows quirked. "You were staying with her? What happened to that big farmhouse and shooting range you always talked about? What happened to trying to patch things up with your dad?" 

"My dad killed himself." Margot pretty much shrugged it off. At that point, she saw no reason in letting it upset her anymore because if she were being honest with herself, the dad she had loved and grown up with had died years ago. "I couldn't stay in the house anymore. I had to let that chapter of my life go. It was time to move on."

Bill wrapped an arm around Margot's shoulders and rubbed her upper arm. "I'm sorry to hear that, Margot." he knew a simple sentiment was all she really needed or wanted. "So, how's Annie doing?"

"She's doing really well." Margot's mood lifted at the mention of her friend. "She's back home with her family and she seems to be getting by as well as anyone can hope for at this point."

"That's good." Bill smiled. "And did she ever end up with anyone? George? Joe? Did she get back together with that ex of hers, Steve?"

"Nope, nope, and nope," Margot answered. "I don't think she's looking for anything like that right now. I think that, just like the rest of us, she is just trying to get back on her feet again."

Bill reached for his drink and sighed. "Well, I'm happy to hear that she's doing okay. I don't know much about anyone anymore. Some guys keep in touch, others only sent a letter or two, but most are just...gone."

"I know how you feel." Margot related. "I've tried to write so many letters but I just never know what to say. It all feels so fake...so impersonal. Some days, even though this sounds crazy, I wish we were all back together again...even if just in Toccoa. I would run Currahee twice a day if it meant seeing everyone again."

Bill looked down at his leg and laughed. "You think Sobel would still make me run that damn mountain?"

Margot snickered. "I think he would time you."

After a little while longer of delightful conversation, Frances headed off to bed, leaving Margot and Bill in the dim lighting of the living room. When the bedroom door could be heard closing, Bill turned to Margot with an expression of exhaustion and warmth mixed together. "I'm so glad you're here," he told her. "There are so many things that I just can't talk about...not to my sweet Frances. There are so many things she doesn't need to know about. So many things I will never make her hear."

"Oh, Bill." Margot reached over and hugged him. "I know. I wish I could tell you it gets easier but...well, if it does, I haven't gotten there myself yet."

"The stuff I heard about after I left...Foy...that night patrol...those camps." Bill trailed off slightly as he spoke. "I don't know how you endured that."

Sitting back, Margot swept a strand of hair out of her face and sighed. "I wish I knew." she only shrugged. "It was just like everything else. It was just something that happened."

"Just something that happened," he repeated. 

"And it's over now." Margot forced a smile. "It's all over. You're home, Annie's home. Everyone who made it through is home now."

Bill's shoulders slumped slightly as he sunk down into the couch. "I just wish it  _felt_ over, you know?"

"I know." Margot rested her head on Bill's shoulder. "I know."

Another half-hour or so of sitting in silence, the reunited friends finally called it a night and retired to their respective rooms. For the first time in a while, Margot got ready to spend the night in a bed alone; she was so used to sharing space with Annie that the amount of room she had to spread out felt weird and unnatural. 

Lying on her back, Margot stared up at the ceiling and realized that she had completely forgotten to ask Bill about Joe at all. She had been so excited to see him again that the reason for her visit had just slipped her mind altogether. 

Before long, the underlying exhaustion began to take over and Margot found herself drifting in and out. Turning onto her side, Margot hugged one of the spare pillows close to her chest, closed her eyes, and let sleep take over. 

●●●

Feeling hands on her, followed by gentle shaking, Margot jolted out of sleep and snapped her head up toward the intruder. With wide eyes and heavy breathing, she came face to face with Bill, who immediately regretted his actions upon seeing the panic in her eyes. 

"Shit, I'm sorry." Bill apologized right away and backed off, his hands in the air in surrender. "I tried calling your name but you wouldn't wake up. I have a surprise for you."

Feeling her heart rate return to normal, Margot collapsed fully back onto the bed and groaned. "A surprise?" she peeked at the clock on the beside the table and rolled her eyes. "It's seven in the morning. Can't the surprise wait?"

"No." Bill shook his head as he headed back for the door. "The surprise has to go to work soon. Just get your ass out of bed and come out here."

"The surprise has to go to work?" Margot's brain was still much too fuzzy to process what Bill was saying. For a millisecond she contemplated just staying in bed, but she knew that Bill would be pissed if she ignored him and went back to sleep, so with a reluctant grumble, she pushed the covers off of herself and grabbed a sweater to throw over herself. 

Shuffling out of the guest bedroom and down the hallway, Margot rubbed her eyes with her fists before folding her arms over her chest. "This better be good, Bill," she called. "I love you and all, but it's been ages since I haven't woken up before the sun began to rise and I was having a good dream for once."

"Just shut up and get out here!" 

"I'm coming." 

Stumbling through the threshold of the kitchen, Margot leaned against the doorway and looked up. Almost instantly, she was fully awake. Standing beside Bill was a familiar redhead with a big, goofy grin on his face. "Hey, partner." Babe Heffron set down his cup of coffee that Bill had obviously offered him.

"Babe!" Margot rushed over and pulled the man in for an engulfing embrace. "Best surprise ever!"

"It's good to see you again." Babe laughed as he held onto Margot tight and pressed a kiss to the top of her messy bedhead. "I stopped by to see Bill on my way to work and he told me there was someone here that I might like to see."

Margot smiled wide. "You already found a job? Good for you! Where?"

"A whiskey distillery plant owned by Publicker Industries," he answered. "It pays pretty good and there's no one shooting at me."

Margot chuckled. "That's good," she replied, beyond happy that she had decided to get out of bed for Bill's vague and cryptid surprise. "You look amazing, Babe; almost like you've never seen the front line of a war zone even once in your life."

Babe cracked a small smirk and just shrugged. "Well, then I wish I felt as good as I looked, 'cause I'll tell ya, coming back home has certainly been a lot harder than I ever could have imagined."

Margot nodded, an understanding expression on her face. "I know how you feel." she stretched her lips into a tight line and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I think it's a lot harder than any of us ever could have imagined." 

Bill nodded in agreement. "The only thing any of us can really do is our best."

"Amen to that." Babe downed the rest of his coffee before placing the empty mug into the sink as if he had done it a million times — which, based on how casually he had stopped by on his way to work that morning, he probably had. "Well, I better be off. Maybe we can all do drinks tonight or something? Catch up? Shoot the shit like we used to?"

"Hey, look who you're talking to here." Margot gestured to herself. "Of course, I'm in."

Bill shifted slightly, his eyes subtly drifting down to look at his leg. It was obvious that he was hesitant about leaving the house if he didn't absolutely have to, but when he looked up and saw two of his best friends staring back at him with nothing but understanding and compassion for him in their eyes, he knew there was absolutely nothing to worry about. "Sure." he agreed, a confident smile plastered on his face. "Sounds like fun."

"Yay." Margot cheered. "The three Muskateers, together again." 

Babe narrowed his eyebrows quizzically as he reached for his jacket that he had thrown over the back of a nearby chair when first arriving. "I don't think anyone has ever called us that."

"Well, I just did." Margot leaned back against the kitchen counter. "But based on the looks of disgust on your faces, I won't do it again."

"Good." Bill clapped her on the shoulder, earning an agreeing nod from Babe as the two laughed. 

With an amused grin on his face, Babe turned and headed for the front door. "Well, I'll see you guys later. There's a little place just a few blocks down that we can go to. Say eight?"

"Eight sounds good." Bill gave a small wave as the redhead opened the door and stepped outside. 

As soon as the door was shut again, Margot turned to Bill, a childlike look of pure joy on her face. "I can't believe you didn't tell me that you and Babe are still in touch." she opened one of the cabinets and pulled out a clean mug so she could pour herself some coffee, seeing as she was wide awake now. "I'm glad the two of you still see each other. It's good to see that not everyone went their separate ways after the war."

Bill just watched as Margot maneuvered her way around the kitchen, seemingly already knowing where to find everything she needed. "Yeah, one day he just showed up out of the blue, said the war was over and that he was home and that he wanted to see how I was doing. Now he just stops by whenever. It's nice to see him again."

After filling up her cup, Margot took a sip of the warm coffee and sighed happily. "It is nice to see him again." Margot wrapped both of her hands around the warm ceramic and sighed. "I owe him my life. He saved my ass more than once over there after you and Joe left."

"Yeah?" Bill questioned.

Margot sheepishly nodded, her head hung low. "Yeah. I kinda lost my mind after Bastogne for a little bit."

"Oh, Margot." Bill crossed the kitchen in three quick steps and wrapped a protective arm around her as soon as he noticed the glossy tint in her eyes and the way her bottom lip began to quiver ever-so-slightly. "Remember what you told me last night? It's all over now. You're home."

"I'm okay." Margot immediately wiped away the few tears and cleared her throat. "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's all over now. I'm home. I'm fine."

Bill rubbed Margot's upper arm and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "That's right." he started to lead her toward the kitchen table. "Why don't you sit down while I make us something to eat? You're gonna need your strength to put up with Babe tonight. That kid sure does know how to talk and talk and talk." 

Margot chuckled slightly. Bill always knew how to cheer her up, even though she actively avoided letting anyone see her upset. "Thanks, Bill."

"Hey, that's what I'm here for, right?" he wandered back into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. "We're part of The Three Muskateers, remember?"


	70. Bill and Babe and Beer

"That is absolutely untrue!" Margot slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her loud, slightly drunken laugh. As Babe returned to the shared table with three glasses tucked carefully in his hands, Margot and Bill looked up at him for a split second before bursting into laughter once more.

"It isn't, I swear." Bill chuckled. 

Babe eyed his two giggly friends and raised a single, quizzical brow. "What has you two in such a good mood?"

Margot looked to Bill, a silent conversation happening between them as they decided whether or not they should admit to what had them cracking up. In the midst of the wordless exchange, Babe slid back into the booth beside Margot and distributed the drinks. "Seriously, guys, what's so funny?"

"Well, Bill here was just telling me about...well, the fact that you...umm..." Margot couldn't find a way to get the sentence out without crumbling into a pile of cackles and snorts. 

Babe was growing more and more curious and a tad annoyed as the seconds ticked by. "Bill, what did you tell her?"

"Oh, for crying out loud." Bill slapped his palm down on the table and looked Babe in the eyes. "I didn't mean to, but it just kind of slipped out, I'm sorry, man. I told her what you told me the night before we all shipped out of England after you and the rest of the replacements joined up with us."

Babe's face twisted with confusion for a second before wide-eyed, jaw-dropping realization washed over him. "No!" his cheeks were almost the same shade as his hair. "Bill, you didn't."

"I'm so sorry." Bill apologized again, but this time his words were sandwiched in between deep breaths to contain his amusement. "I swear I didn't mean to."

"It's okay, Babe." Margot threw her arms around the redhead beside her and planted a friendly kiss on his hot cheek. "I'm flattered, really."

With Margot's arms still resting on his shoulders, Babe buried his face in his hands and groaned. "I cannot believe you told her that I thought she was cute." he peeked one eye out from behind his fingers and looked up at Margot. "I promise the crush only lasted a week max. I was new and you were intimidating but also really impressive and Doris had just 'dear Johned' me and-"

Bill and Margot broke down again, their eyes beginning to well up with tears from just how damn funny they found the situation to be; plus, the alcohol wasn't helping. "Babe, really, it's fine." Margot willed herself to calm down as she gave the thoroughly embarrassed man a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I don't think of you any differently because of it. I just think it's funny because I never would have suspected it."

"Yeah, well, Babe here backed down pretty quickly when Toye gave him a few good glares here and there." Bill wrapped his hand around the frosty glass of fresh beer and took the first sip. "Toye would give a death-glare to any man who dared look at you."

Margot rolled her eyes, having heard the story a million times before but still finding it hard to believe. "It just doesn't seem like him." she shrugged. "For pretty much the entire duration of Toccoa, I was pretty sure he hated me."

"I think he did." Bill nodded. "Then, one day, he just didn't."

Babe, curious and glad that the topic had shifted away from his previous, momentary infatuation with Margot, leaned in closer. "And what day would that be?" he inquired. 

Bill thought for a moment, his teeth chewing at his bottom lip before the recollection finally came to him. "If I remember correctly, it was sometime around when she kicked his ass in hand-to-hand combat training in Aldbourne."

A proud smirk spread across Margot's face. "I remember that." she thought back fondly to when she had convinced the combat instructor to pair her and Annie up with men instead of one another. "He kept going on and on about how he didn't want to hurt me and then I promptly threw him over my shoulder and dropped him onto the cold, hard England dirt. I wish I had a photo of his face afterward."

Bill nodded as he wiped the beer foam from his top lip. "While you were doing that I was busy watching Liebgott smack Annie's hands away as she tried to get him back from when he elbowed her in the nose on the ship."

Margot rolled her eyes and huffed. "You started that fight and you know it." she jabbed a finger in Bill's direction. "You knew Joe was a Jew and you just kept pushing because you could. That was before I really even liked you all that much."

Bill flashed a wide grin. "Well, it's a good thing you love me now then, isn't it?"

"Love is a strong word." Margot narrowed her eyes at her friend before letting her serious facade fall. "But, yes, it is a good thing I love you now." 

Watching as the two beside him went back and forth at one another, Babe chuckled and shook his head slightly. "Man, the stories from the original Toccoa group are always so weird and yet so amusing."

Margot and Bill nodded before looking to one another, the same thought circling their minds at the same time. "Spaghetti." they both said at the same time before bursting out into uncontrollable laughter once more.

For another hour or so, Margot and Bill told story after story, trying their hardest to find ones that Babe had yet to hear. They told him about midnight marches, about the time Annie had accidentally whacked Webster in the knee while digging trenches, and about just how generally horrible Sobel was and how he made their lives a living hell for years. 

Once the storytelling had faded and the drinking had slowed down considerably, the three just sat together and talked about whatever came to mind, just like they used to while in Europe; it was something that they did whenever there was downtime or they simply couldn't sleep. 

"Do you guys ever wake up in the middle of the night and for a split second think you're in a trench in the middle of some field somewhere in Europe?" Babe posed the question, his eyes focused on the remaining liquid in his glass as he swirled it around. 

"All the time," Margot answered. "There was this one night while I was staying with Annie when I fully believed that I was back in Bastogne, and when I looked over at her and she was sleeping so soundly that her breathing was barely noticeable, I thought she was dead. Just before I grabbed her to shake her, I snapped back into reality and remembered where I was. It was so freaky."

Bill hummed in agreement. "Franny says I talk a lot in my sleep and sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat, blabbering on about how I have to get Joe to safety or some shit like that. That day plays over and over again in my head almost every second of every day." 

"That day plays over and over in my head too." Margot's face fell as her hands dropped into her lap. "It was the day I couldn't save two of my best friends."

"Hey." Bill placed a hand on Margot's shoulder. "It's not your fault, and besides, Joe and I are fine. Granted, we each have one less leg, but other than that, we're fine." 

Margot scoffed. "None of us are fine." 

"We will be." Babe tried his best to look on the bright side. "It's just gonna take some time. It can't last forever. Eventually, we will be fine."

"I hope you're right." Margot propped her elbow up on the table and rested her head in her hand. "God, I really hope you're right. What if it's too soon for me to see Joe? What if he's not ready? What if he's not fine yet?"

Bill and Babe shared a look from across the table. "Margot, I know you probably won't believe me when I say this, but Joe doesn't need to be fine for him to want to see you," Bill assured the worried woman. "When we were in the hospital together, the only time that he wasn't a complaining, miserable bastard was when he was writing to you or talking about you. He wants to see you, trust me."

Margot cracked a small, faint smile. "You really think so?"           

"I know so." Bill insisted as Babe stood up and silently excused himself to go to the bathroom. "Listen to me, Margot. I watched for years as you and Joe went from strangers, to acquaintances, to friends, to something more. You know how you said that you're happy that I have Frances? Well, I want to be happy for you like that, and I think Joe is the key to that. We can't do this alone. I have someone. Go get yourself a someone." 

"You're the best, Bill, you know that?" Margot's spirits lifted instantly. 

Bill waved her off. "I'm just doing exactly what you would do for me."

"I know I've said this a million times already, but I really did miss you." Margot took Bill's hand in hers and squeezed tight, a part of her never wanting to let him go again. 

"I missed you too," Bill told her. "It was a real asshole move of me to go and leave you like that."

Margot's laugh returned once more. "Yeah, it really was."

Not long after, Babe came back from the bathroom. As he sat down and noticed that the mood had lifted once again, he looked to Bill. "So, did you tell her?"

Bill shook his head. "Not yet. I was trying to get her to smile again before I did."

Margot looked between her two friends, a single eyebrow cocked with confusion. "Tell me what?" she asked.

"Well, you wanted to know where Joe was." Babe started before gesturing to Bill so he could finish with the big reveal.

"Yeah?" Margot turned to Bill. "What is it? Will you just tell me?"

Bill smirked at the eager woman. "Joe's pretty much been right under your nose this entire time." he was relishing in watching Margot squirm a little. "He lives right here in Pennsylvania. If I remember correctly, he's just up in Reading; an hours drive away."

Margot couldn't believe her ears. This entire time she had been so worried about finding Joe only to discover that she was an hour away from him all along. "W-why didn't you tell me sooner?" she inquired.

"Because I wasn't sure you were ready to hear it," Bill confessed truthfully. "You kept freaking out about him not wanting to see you like you did like ten minutes ago. I needed you to realize that if you go see him, there is not going to be an easy out for you. He isn't going to not answer the door or turn you away. If you go see him, Margot, he's going to be there and he's going to be happy to see you, whether he shows it on the outside or not."

Margot blinked a few times, unable to form a response right away. "You know, you had me feeling better about the whole situation, but with that speech, I think you brought all the fear back."

"There's nothing to be scared of." Babe jumped into the conversation. "In fact, I'm willing to bet that if he still had both legs, he would have already come to see you."

"Then there's that." Margot sighed. "I don't know how to...Bill, is it hard with the prosthetic?"

Bill looked down at his own leg and shrugged. "I mean, it sure doesn't even come close to having both of my real legs, but after the physiotherapy, it isn't too bad. My main trouble is that it hurts like a bitch pretty much every day, but that's just me."

"I guess it would be different for everyone." Margot tucked some of her loose hair behind her ear. "That was kind of a stupid question, wasn't it?"

"No, it wasn't," Bill assured her. "It just means you care. Trust me, don't worry about it. Just go see him."

Margot drew in a deep breath before downing the remainder of her beer, which by that point, was lukewarm. "Okay." she blurted out before she could change her mind. "I'll go. I've got to. I told him I would, so I have to. That's that."

Bill and Babe let out cheers. "Yay!" they whooped, drawing attention to themselves from the other bar patrons. "Sorry." Babe apologized for the two of them, immediately lowering his voice. 

"Okay, that decision requires another drink." Margot clapped her hands together, yet again turning a few heads. "And then we really should get going. Apparently, we are too loud for this particular establishment." 

"Apparently." Bill scooted out of the booth seat so Margot could go for one last round. "And make sure you flirt with the bartender so he gets us the fresh, cold stuff and not the stale, room-temperature crap that Babe keeps bringing back."

Margot rolled her eyes playfully as she walked off. "Yeah, I'll get right on that."


	71. Just Visiting

With her hands full of grocery bags, Annie picked up the pace a little as her house came into view further down the street. Her arms were growing tired and the hot sun was causing her to sweat, which wasn't making it any easier for her to grip the many plastic bags. 

Once up the steps of her porch, she set down one handful of bags so she could open the front door for herself. "A little help would be great!" she called into the quiet house, but unusually, no answer came. Normally, there was always at least someone around, even if it was only her younger siblings. 

Shrugging it off, Annie made her way to the kitchen and plopped the bags down onto the counter with a triumphant huff. "Anyone here?" she called again, but just like the first time, there was no answer. Sighing, the blonde began to pull the groceries out of the bags and put them away. 

Grabbing onto a bag of apples, Annie heard the back door open and her head perked up at the sound. "There you are." Elaine walked into the kitchen and smiled at her daughter. "I was beginning to wonder where you were."

Gesturing to the many bags in front of her, Annie chuckled. "Obviously, I was at the bowling alley." 

"Smartass." Elaine lowered her voice out of the habit of always having the younger ones around. "Well, now that you're back, let me put everything away."

"No, no, it's okay." Annie insisted as she picked up a can of soup. "I can manage just fine."

Taking the can from Annie's hands, Elaine smiled sweetly. "Sweetie, let me do it." she gestured to the back door with her head. "There's someone here to see you."

Annie's face twisted with confusion as she peeked out the back window, but all she could see was Tim and Julia playing on the swingset. "Who?" she questioned. "I'm not expecting anyone."

"Annie, will you just go out back and see who it is." Elaine could barely contain her own excitement. 

"Why are you being so secretive about this, Mom?" Annie laughed as she gave in and stepped away from the groceries. "Have you found me a lover, dear Mother? Is he here to sweep me away and give me a life I've always dreamed of?" she put on an old, victorian era British accent. 

Elaine just rolled her eyes. "I guess you'll have to see for yourself."

"Fine!" Annie threw her hands up in defeat and headed for the back door. "But if it's not a handsome bachelor I will be very upset."

Opening the back door, Annie stepped out onto the lawn and waved to Tim and Julia, who were in the midst of what looked like a competition to see who could swing the highest. "Hey, guys." Annie wrapped her sweater around her body tighter to counteract the slightly cool breeze, which had come out of nowhere considering it had been absent on her way back from the store. "Are Dad and Philip out here?"

Removing one hand from the swing chain, Julia pointed toward the garage door, which was currently swung open. "In there," she said. "There's a man with them."

"A man?" Annie questioned, but she got nothing more out of her younger sister. Turning on her heel, the blonde woman walked toward the garage. Usually, the garage door was only open when her dad was inside working on something, which was pretty few and far between considering most of his time was taken up by his job. 

Pushing the door open a little wider, Annie peeked her head inside the dim garage and spotted her father, brother, and another man standing near the back admiring the beat-up vehicle that Arthur, and sometimes Philip, spent their free time trying to fix up. 

"Are we having a party in here?" Annie spoke up, curious as ever to see who the mystery man was since she couldn't figure it out just from the back of his head. 

Slowly, the three turned around, and Annie's jaw nearly hit the floor. "George?" she gasped when she saw the former radioman standing between her father and her brother. 

"Hey, Annie." George smiled wide, proud of himself for managing to surprise the woman with his presence. "I was just getting a tour of the sweet fixer-upper your dad has out here. How come you never told me your dad and brother were so cool?"

Rushing over, Annie threw her arms around George and hugged him tightly. "What are you doing here?" she giggled out of shock and excitement. "Why does no one ever write anymore? Everyone just shows up out of the blue."

"Well, if I told you I was coming, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" George retorted as Arthur and Philip excused themselves so they could let the two friends catch up in private. "How are you doing?" George smiled down at the girl before himself once he was alone with her. "You look great."

"You don't look too bad yourself." Annie blushed slightly at the compliment. "I'm well, thank you. How are you?"

George sighed happily. "I'm great, but I missed you too much, so I decided to come visit. I hope that's okay."

"Of course, it's okay!" Annie gushed. "So, did you meet everyone already? How long have you been here?"

"I don't know, twenty minutes or so maybe?" George shrugged. "But, yes, I believe I met everyone. To tell you the truth, I actually came to meet my number one fan, Timothy, and not to see you."

Annie rolled her eyes playfully and hit George lightly on the arm. "Why am I not surprised? You always liked my family more than me anyway, even before you officially met them."

"You caught me."

"Knew it," Annie smirked. "So, what do you think? Is the Winslow family everything you had hoped for and more?"

"Oh, Annie, I love them already." George's face lit up in that way that could brighten a whole room in seconds. "They really are exactly like how you described them. Timothy is such a cool kid and Julia is so fricken adorable. Did you know she had a drawing of me? She showed me a drawing of me that she drew based on your description of me from the letters you sent home. I swear, I think my heart melted." 

George dramatically clasped at his chest to mimick his heart melting right then and there. "I'm glad you like them." Annie laughed as the man in front of her finished up his silly display. "Although, I should warn you, apparently it's Tim now, not Timothy."

"Oh, he's a big boy with a big boy name." George looked past Annie and out the garage door at the younger boy playing with his sister. "I understand." he winked at Annie. 

"It must be a guy thing." Annie chuckled. "Anyway, how long are you here for? Margot just left a few days ago so we're still in guest mode if you're planning on staying a few days."

George's eyes widened. "Margot was here? Awh, man, I just missed her."

"That you did." Annie nodded. "She left to go find Toye."

"Ohhh." George wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive way. "So those two are actually going to get together?"

Annie held her hands up slightly and shook her head. "I have no idea. I hope so. I guess we'll find out."

For a few moments, there was silence, and in that time, Annie found herself playing over the last time she and George had been alone together in her mind. It had been in Austria when he had told her that he loved her, followed by a kiss that brought a tingling sensation to her lips just by thinking about it. 

"It's really good to see you again." George broke the silence. 

"It's good to see you too," Annie replied. "I really missed you." 

"I missed you too."

Pushing the thoughts of George's lips on hers out of her head, Annie reached out and took his hand in hers. "Come on." she pulled him along behind herself. 

"Where are we going?" he followed willingly despite having no idea what was going on.

"We're going for a walk," she answered, smiling at the man behind her from over her shoulder. "There's a park I like to go to where we can talk. You'll like it, trust me."

George smiled back at Annie, his hand tightening around hers. "Okay. Lead the way."

●●●

"I'm not kidding." Annie shook her head as she started heading toward one of the benches along the pathway in the park. "He really did show up wanting to get back together with me."

George snickered as he took a seat next to the blonde girl. "Please tell me you slammed the door right in his face."

"No, I heard him out and we actually went out one last time," Annie confessed. "I figured I owed him at least that, you know? After all, I did kind of leave him high and dry by just suddenly deciding to join the army. I've come to realize that his actions weren't totally unfounded. I don't hate him, he just isn't the guy for me, and sometimes stuff like that happens."

George nodded along to Annie's story before cracking a smile. "Wow, you are much more mature about the whole situation than I would be if it were me instead of you," he said. "I would have slammed the door in his face."

"Yeah, I got that much." Annie folded one leg over the other and sat back against the bench. "So, enough about me. Tell me about you. What has George Luz been up to since retiring from his days of being the best damn radioman in the whole world?"

George groaned slightly and slung his arm over the back of the bench behind Annie like he used to do when they would ride in the back of the army trucks together. "Ugh, you don't want to hear about me." George waved off her request. "My life isn't exciting. I much prefer hearing your stories."

"Well, I've been talking pretty much this whole time and I'm all out of stories." Annie shrugged. "It's only been about a month or so, George. Not that much has happened since I last saw you."

"Okay, okay." George finally gave in, never being able to deny a request from Annie, not that he would ever want to. "Well, I got home and much like you, had a very big, warm welcome from my family. I knew I had missed them while I was gone, but I don't think I really realized just how much I missed them until I saw them again."

"Big families are like that." Annie understood exactly what he meant. "They're a lot to be around and can be annoying when they're all you know, but as soon as you're gone, you miss the chaos."

George smiled wide. "Exactly! Not that we were without chaos, though."

"Very true." Annie agreed. "War makes my family seem quiet and reserved, which I thought was impossible."

"Awh, no, I like your family," George assured her. "If you think your family is bad, you should meet mine."

"I'd like that." Annie's eyes drifted out to the small lake in the middle of the park that she often found herself getting distracted by when birds came and went. 

George hadn't been expecting that reply, but he felt joy from it nevertheless. "Yeah?" he inquired.

"Yeah." Annie nodded. "You've met my family now. It's only fair."

"Well, it has to be fair, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does." Annie turned her body to face George. "Okay, come on, tell me some more."

George scoffed, followed by a low chuckle. "You really are persistent, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Annie admitted proudly. "Come on!" she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him as if to shake the words out. 

"I don't know what you want me to say." George laughed as he pushed Annie's hands off of him. "I'm boring."

Annie sighed. "I think you're plenty interesting." she echoed the same words he had once said to her when she said the exact same thing. 

"Oh, do you now?" he cocked a brow at her. 

"I do and you know that." Annie took note of how the sun was beginning to set and decided that it was probably time to start heading back home. Standing to her feet, she dusted off her dress and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You hungry?"

George thought for a moment before nodding and standing as well. "Starving."

"Good." Annie started walking again, George by her side. "Mom's cooking is pretty good."

"So I've heard."


	72. The Fog Has Lifted

Carrying over a pile of plates from the dinner table, Annie placed them down beside her mother at the sink before scraping the final few scraps into the trash can. With a smile on her face, she listened as George told one of his many stories to Tim and Julia, his hands moving a mile a minute as he provided visuals as well. 

"He really is a character." Elaine caught her daughter peeking back over to the table every few seconds, her voice low so as to only be heard by Annie and herself. 

Having her mother's voice pull her out of her slight trance, Annie scraped the final plate before returning it to the pile to be washed. "Yeah, he is." she agreed. "He's always been able to bring a smile to just about anybody's face."

"I can tell. You haven't stopped smiling since he got here." Elaine chuckled quietly. "I remember him from your letters. You wrote about him a lot."

Annie shrugged slightly, unsure of how to respond to that at first. "He's one of my best friends." she finally said. 

Elaine cocked a single brow as she grabbed for another plate and dipped it into the soapy, warm water in the sink. "Just friends?" she questioned. 

"Mom!" Annie laughed, moving closer in hopes to get her mother to lower her voice even more. "Yes, just friends."

Elaine giggled. "All I'm saying is..." she looked over her shoulder at George and noticed his natural ability with the younger ones. "...he seems nice."

"He  _is_  nice." Annie folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the edge of the counter. 

"But not nice enough to date?" Elaine pried just a little bit more. 

"That's not-" Annie shook her head. "We're just not together like that. We're just friends."

Elaine held up her gloved, soapy hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. I believe you."

"It doesn't seem like you do."

"I do."

"Good."

Finishing up his story, George sat back in his chair and looked over at Annie, who flashed him a warm smile when the two made eye contact. Elaine wasn't blind to how George looked at her daughter, just like how everyone else in the company had been while in Europe, but she decided not to push the subject any further. Annie was a grown woman who was capable of making choices on her own, even if she was sometimes a little oblivious to what was clearly right in front of her. 

Pushing away from the counter, Annie reached for the kettle. "Would you like some tea, George?" 

"I want tea!" Julia shouted loudly, Tim following suite. 

Turning around, hands on her hips, Annie eyed her siblings. "Excuse me, but are any of your names George?"

"Tim, Julia, wait your turn," Arthur instructed his children. 

George waited until the chaos had died down a little before answering. "I'd love some, thanks."

"Okay." Annie then looked to her younger brother and sister. "Now, Julia, Tim, would you guys like some tea as well?"

"Yes, please." the two chorused.

Shaking her head slowly, Annie chuckled to herself as she filled the kettle with water before placing it over the flame on the stove. Not two minutes later, however, Tim and Julia jumped from their seats and bolted out the back door and into the backyard. 

"I like those two," George commented. "They're little spitfires. They remind me of my brothers and sisters." 

"You want two more siblings?" Annie asked, a smirk on her face. "You can have them. Please, take them with you when you go."

George only laughed at that, and in the meantime, Arthur and Elaine excused themselves and retired to the living room upstairs in order to watch some television for the evening, leaving Annie, Philip, and George remaining in the kitchen and dining room. 

Clearing his throat, Philip turned his body in his chair slightly to face George. "So, George, Annie tells us you were a radioman. How was that?"

"It was fine." George wasn't quite sure how to answer. "I didn't really get to pick it, but it wasn't the worst job. What about you? Did you serve?"

"Ugh, no," Philip responded. "I'm half deaf so I guess that means I'm useless to the United States Army."

Annie snorted. "Soldiers might as well not even have ears. Half the time you can't hear shit over the explosions anyway."

"Man, I sure wished I was deaf during those cold nights in Bastogne when the only thing you could hear were those damn Krauts singing botched versions of Christmas carols from across the field." George's eyes flickered toward Annie as he recalled the night they had spent with the others on Christmas eve in Bastogne. 

Sitting with George in that foxhole after returning from town and witnessing the demolished church flashed through Annie's mind. She remembered how he held her tight, listened to her crazy ranting, and stayed with her until she fell asleep; just one of the many things he had done for her while deployed. "Definitely the weirdest Christmas I've ever had." Annie pointed out as the kettle behind her began to whistle.

Turning around, Annie lifted the steaming kettle and carefully poured out five cups before adding the teabags in afterward. "Okay, you two sit tight while I go cater to the prince and princess out there." Annie chuckled as she grabbed the two smaller mugs and made her way out the back door to deliver the hot drinks to her younger siblings.

In her absence, Philip decided to take the time alone with George to try and get to know him a little better. "So, where are you from, George?" he started off with an easy and innocent question as he got up to retrieve his and George's tea.

"Rhode Island," George answered, giving a thankful nod when Philip placed a mug down in front of him. "Have you guys always lived here?"

"Yeah, born and raised in this very house." Philip nodded before moving on to his next question. "And, ugh, do you have a girlfriend back in Rhode Island?"

George shook his head, a little thrown off by the question but not concerned about it. "No, no. No girlfriend," he recalled the time he and Annie had really talked for the first time; it was the night in the bar after everyone had gotten their jump wings. The main conversation topic had been family and significant others, which of course, meant Steve had been brought up. "Hey, this might not be my place to ask, but earlier today Annie told me about Steve coming to see her again. Does he still come around?"

"No, not to my knowledge." Philip thought back to the last time he had seen Steve, which had been when he showed up to ask Annie out again. "I think Annie finally kicked him to the curb, which we're all thankful for."

"Tell me about it." George wrapped his hands around his mug and felt as the warmth transferred to his palms. "You should have seen her face when she got his letter. She just froze and she went pale — even paler than normal, which I didn't think was possible until then. I've never even met the guy and I already know I don't like him. He might not be a bad person — like Annie claims — but even so, he still isn't the guy for her."

Philip furrowed his eyebrows at George. "Hmm? You think so?"

"Yeah." George nodded. "Yeah, I do. I mean, I spent pretty much four years straight with Annie. I know her pretty well and I know how smart and kind and funny she is. Not only is she an incredible soldier and medic, but she's an incredible person who deserves the world, therefore, she deserves someone who can give her the world." 

Philip's mouth curled into an uncontrollable smile as the back door opened again and Annie stepped back into the house. Placing a hand on George's shoulder and giving him a few pats, Philip stood up with his mug in his free hand and leaned down toward George. "I like you, George," he whispered so Annie couldn't hear. "And I know Annie does too. Just don't do anything stupid, got it?"

"Got it." George suddenly understood what was happening as Philip walked off, leaving him and Annie alone. 

Annie's eyes narrowed at her brother as she watched him disappear up the stairs. "What was that all about?" she asked as she picked up her tea and joined George as the table. 

"Oh, nothing." George waved his hand at Annie to dismiss her curiosity. "We were just chatting is all."

"Ah, okay." Annie blew on the hot liquid in her mug before taking the first sip. For a while, the two sat in silence, but then, out of nowhere, an idea popped into Annie's head. When the knowing, goofy smirk appeared on the blonde's face, George knew something was up.

Eyeing the woman in front of him, George just laughed. "What?"

"I have an idea."

"Well, I know that based on that mysterious smile on your face. What is your idea?"

"It's a surprise."

George huffed. "Why?"

"Because it's more fun that way." Annie chuckled to herself as she took another sip of her tea. "You'll see tomorrow."

"Okay, fine." George gave in. "I trust you."

●●●

The next day, which was a Sunday, Annie borrowed her father's truck and dragged George out of bed — or more accurately, off of the couch — bright and early. George wasn't too happy with being up so early, but of course, he could never be upset with Annie, so with bleary eyes, he hopped into the truck and attempted to wake himself up.

Throughout the day, Annie took George to all of her favourite spots in town, including the new diner that Steve had shown her and the ice cream shop that she had taken Margot to. These little stops, however, were just build-up for the main event. 

After a day together, Annie convinced George to let her take him to one more place, which didn't take much convincing at all. This last stop was a little further away but it was the focal point of the outing and the very reason Annie had decided to take George out for the day.

When the idea had popped into her head the day before, Annie knew it was perfect. She wanted to make her time with George special because she didn't know when he would be going home and when the next time she would get to see him again would be.

"Okay, this is it," Annie announced as she parked the truck in front of the rather empty beach with a single lighthouse standing tall before them. 

George stared out the passenger's side window for a few seconds before turning to look at Annie, a happy smile on his face despite the fact that he had no clue where he was or why he was there. "What is this place?" he inquired.

"This is Lighthouse Point Park," Annie answered as she turned the engine off on the truck and took the keys out of the ignition. "You'll find out why we're here soon enough," she answered the next question that she was sure was swirling around inside of his head before he could even ask it. "Come on."

Hopping out of the vehicle, Annie led the way down onto the beach, only stopping for a few seconds so she could take her shoes off once she reached the sand — George doing the same. 

"This place is really nice," George said as the wind swept his hair all over the place. 

"I haven't been here in years, but there is something I remember about this place." Annie walked until the tips of the tide just barely touched her feet, the cold ocean water making her shiver ever-so-slightly. Staring out into the distance, the colourful sunset sky providing a beautiful contrast to the shadowed silhouette of the coastal cities in the distance, Annie searched for the landmark. "Look out there." Annie directed, her pointer finger gesturing toward the horizon. 

Stepping beside Annie, George's eyes followed her finger. "Okay, I'm looking." he was still thoroughly confused. "What am I looking at?"

"You see that structure that stands taller than the buildings?" Annie made sure he was looking at the right thing. "That one right there."

"Ah, yes, okay." George nodded, squinting his eyes slightly in the process. "I still don't know what I'm looking at though."

"That's The Statue of Liberty." Annie finally informed him. "The first thing we saw when setting off to war and the first thing we saw when coming home from it."

George suddenly understood the reason why he was standing on that beach at sunset with his shoes in his hand. "Oh." he looked down at Annie and chuckled. "Kind of hard to tell that that's what it is, so I'll just take your word for it."

"Well, I'm sorry I couldn't get us any closer." Annie rolled her eyes playfully. "Next time I try to take you somewhere nice I'll make sure it's up to your standards."

"Yes, that would be much appreciated, thank you." George teased. 

"You're impossible, George Luz." Annie folded her arms over her chest to tighten her sweater around herself. 

George threw his arm over Annie's shoulder as the two of them continued to gaze out into the distance, the shades of colour in the sky slowly changing. "And you're impossibly amazing, Annie Winslow," George told her. "So, is this the reason we spent the whole day together? So you could show me the smallest version of The Statue of Liberty possible at sunset?"

"Well, kind of." Annie shrugged as she shifted closer to George, encouraging him to tighten his arm around her. "Mostly I just wanted to spend time with you somewhere where my family wasn't lurking around every corner. This seemed like a nice excuse."

"You don't need an excuse for me to want to hang out with you," George told her honestly. "I would go with you if you said you were just going to the grocery store or some other boring, routine task."

Annie snorted. "I actually have to pick up something in town from the tailor's tomorrow."

"It's a date."

"A date?"

George thought for a few seconds. "Yeah, well, although it's not nearly as romantic as this is, it still sounds pleasant."

"You think this is romantic?" Annie asked.

"Yes."

"I didn't plan it that way."

"That makes it even more romantic."

Annie was silent for a while, her eyes glued to the waves before she spoke again. "George?"

George hummed softly. "Yeah?"

"You remember in Austria when I told you Winters offered me that job in England?"

George swallowed hard, never having forgotten that day in the slightest; all of the details still fresh in his mind as if it had happened yesterday. "Yes."

"You remember what you did after?"

"...yes."

"Will you do it again?"

George didn't need to be asked twice; hell, he barely even needed to be asked once. Rotating his body so that he was facing Annie, George took the blonde girl's face in his hands before dipping his head down and pressing his lips to hers. 

This time Annie wasn't taken off-guard by the kiss, so this time, when George kissed her, she responded in turn. Annie's hands snaked around George's neck and pulled him close so his body was flush against hers and her mouth moved in rhythm with his. 

Finally, once all of the distractions of war had faded away, Annie was able to recognize just how much George truly meant to her — and hopefully, how much she meant to him. When there weren't gunshots and explosives going off left and right, Annie was able to hear how her heart pounded against her chest when she was with George, and when her eyes weren't clouded by the haze of death and destruction, she was able to see just how beautiful he looked when he smiled at her. 

It took Annie a little while, but finally, she was beginning to come to terms with what had been sitting right in front of her this whole time. 


	73. Thunder and Lightning

"Shhh." Annie giggled softly as she placed the key into the lock on the front door of her home, hoping that she and George had stayed out late enough for everyone to already be in bed. 

"I'm not saying anything." George wrapped his arms around Annie's waist and planted kiss after kiss onto her neck as she slowly and carefully swung the door open. 

Annie hummed softly at the feeling of George's lips on her skin, but her mind was more focused on the house and if anyone was still awake. Standing still in the entryway, she listened intently for any sounds that might be an indicator of her one of her family members coming to greet her, but thankfully, the home was silent. 

Once she was sure the coast was clear, Annie closed the door again and kicked off her shoes, George following suite. "Come on." she took George's hand in hers and began to lead him up the stairs. "And keep quiet."

"Wait." George stopped halfway up the staircase. "What if someone catches us? What will your parents think when they wake up and I'm not on the couch tomorrow morning?"

"I'll just kick you out after," Annie suggested as she tried to tug him along with her. "Since when has George Luz ever needed this much convincing?"

"Usually, never," George smirked before his facial expression turned serious. "But this is different; this is you, Annie. It should be special and we shouldn't have to worry about waking up your entire family. Plus, I care what they think about me, and so do you. Let's keep me in their good graces."

Annie's shoulders slumped as she descended the few steps in between her and George. "Although I hate to admit it, you're right." she huffed defeatedly. "You're not supposed to be right."

"Trust me, I've never wished I was wrong more in my entire life." George kissed Annie's forehead before slipping his hand out of hers. "I'll see you in the morning."

Annie smiled even though she was still disappointed. "Yeah, see you in the morning." she watched as George retreated back down the stairs and settled himself on the couch in the lower level living room. Annie stayed put as George adjusted the blanket and pillows, and just as he was about to lie down, he caught Annie staring.

"What are you looking at?" he jokingly asked, his figure mostly shadowed in the darkness of the house, the faded beams of moonlight peeking in through the window illuminating certain aspects of his face. 

"You." Annie made her way over to George. "I've just realized that I really like looking at you."

George snorted. "I've known that I like looking at you for years now. Catch up, woman." 

"I'm trying." Annie placed her palms onto George's face and caressed his cheeks with her thumbs. "You just have to be a little patient with me is all."

"I've waited this long." George turned his head slightly and kissed one of Annie's hands. "What's a little longer?" 

Annie let the silence sink in for a few moments before deciding that it was time for her to head upstairs to bed. "Goodnight, George," she whispered, planting a smooch on his head.

"Goodnight, Annie," George replied as Annie turned and headed back up the stairs for good this time; forcing herself not to look back for fear that if she did, she would never make it to her room. 

●●●

Annie woke with a jolt, the thunder crack that signified the beginning of a thunderstorm waking her from her sleep. With her chest rising and falling at a rapid and uneven pace and her skin coated in a thin layer of sweat, the girl drew her knees up to her torso and stared out the window, the flashes of light and claps of thunder bringing back memories of the many mortar attacks she had lived through whilst in Bastogne. 

For a split second, Annie's entire room was illuminated by the severe weather outside and she swore she could see two figures standing in the corner of her room. Blinking fast a few times, the blonde tried to slow her breathing as she focused on where the shadowed figures had appeared. Another flash of light. Another glimpse at their faces. 

Warren Muck and Alex Penkala. 

"No." Annie buried her face in her hands and shook her head furiously. "No, they're not real," she told herself. "They're not there." 

As the storm grew worse and worse, the thunder got louder and the flashes of light got brighter and more frequent. While Annie had slowly, over time, been teaching herself how to calm herself down in situations like this, it soon became very apparent that the task was much harder for others. 

The next crack of thunder was much louder than any of the others, the sound deafening and leaving a ringing sound in Annie's ears before a scream echoed through the house, originated from downstairs. 

Even though it had been over a month since being in any sort of combat situation, the sound of someone in distress kicked Annie's medic instincts into overdrive and suddenly, even though seconds before she had been shaking, she was no longer scared in the slightest; she couldn't be. 

Jumping out of bed, Annie threw her door open to see most of her family poking their heads out into the hallway, the storm or scream obviously having woken them as well. 

"It's okay, I've got it," Annie assured her family as she threw her robe over top of her pajamas. "Just go back to bed. Everything is going to be okay."

Heading down the steps in the pitch black, Annie was actually thankful for the flashes of lightning that helped light her way. "George?" she called into the living room as she approached the curled-up body on the couch that closely resembled how she had been not two minutes prior. "George, are you okay?"

George's eyes were lit up for a fleeting moment, and even though it was such a short window of time, Annie had been able to see the terror in his irises as clear as day. "Annie?" he whispered, his voice soft and intertwined with hints of uncertainty. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Annie sat down on the edge of the couch and pushed away some of the hair that had become stuck to George's sweat-covered forehead. "You okay?"

George was silent for a moment as his eyes flickered toward the window and watched the storm for a couple of seconds. "I think so." he finally mumbled out. "Did I wake everyone? I'm sorry if I did."

"Don't worry about that." Annie rubbed soothing circles onto his back, trying her best to make him feel as safe and secure as she could. "They know loud noises are hard to deal with, especially when they come out of nowhere. I've trained them well."

Annie swore she saw a small smirk play at the corners of George's mouth. "I thought I was done with the screaming," he admitted. "I haven't had woken up like that in about two weeks. I thought it was gone."

"I think it's going to take a little longer than a couple of weeks to offset years of trauma," Annie stated. "But something I've learned is that you shouldn't be ashamed of it. It's just who you are and there is nothing you can do about it."

"I tried to wait until I was better before I came to see you," George said, his eyes drifting down to his lap. "I didn't want you to see me like this."

Annie took one of George's hands in hers and held it tight, her action letting him know that she was there for him. "Believe me when I say this, you're not the only one who's suffering from the after-effects of war, George. I have little sensitivities, Margot has them, and I'm sure everyone else has them too. In fact, I think it would be more abnormal if you  _didn't_ have any of the symptoms."

"I just feel like they're...I don't know...weak?" he tried to search for the right words to describe what he was feeling. "I mean, men died over there, men like Bill and Joe returned home with a missing limb, and here I am, screaming because of a thunderstorm. It feels like it's not real...like I shouldn't be affected like this."

"It's not any less real than a bullet in the leg would be." Annie sighed before a slight chuckle escaped. "Although, you don't know much about bullet wounds, do you? You were like the only guy who escaped the war without so much as a paper cut."

George's face fell, which was the opposite reaction Annie had been hoping to get. "Don't remind me." he huffed. "I feel guilty about that shit every single day."

"Oh, George." Annie rolled her eyes and planted a soft kiss onto his cheek. "It's not your fault you never got shot. Take it from someone who was only just grazed by a bullet, you're not missing much. Surprisingly, it's not all it's cracked up to be." 

"Annie-" George squeezed her hand hard before pulling her back against his chest and wrapping his arms around her. "You're so good at making me feel better." 

"It's definitely a challenge to cheer up the company class-clown, but I try my best." Annie tipped her head back and rested it on George's shoulder, the storm raging on in the background, no longer the center of attention — no longer a cause of fear and anxiety. "You do laugh at almost anything though, so there is that."

George narrowed his eyes at Annie and scoffed. "Hey, I do not almost laugh at anything."

"Yes, George, you do. You once laughed uncontrollably because Sobel mispronounced the word 'reprimand' by accident." 

George snickered. "Oh yeah, that was funny."

"It really wasn't."

"Says you."

"Says literally everyone." Annie shook her head slightly at George's childlike humor. "But it's okay because I like it when you laugh. I think it's impossible to be anything but happy when you're laughing."

George only shrugged, his arms tightening around Annie and pulling her even closer to his chest — if that were possible. "Half of the jokes I made were purely to make you laugh," he confessed. 

"I know," Annie told him. "I may not have figured out a lot of what was going on between you and me, but I did figure that out. I didn't say anything though because I liked it."

"You liked my jokes?" he asked. "Even the bad ones?"

"Especially the bad ones." Annie smiled up at him and tucked her head underneath his chin. 

Turning his head toward the window, George noticed how the dark clouds were moving on and making room for the moon to shine through once more. "I think the storm is calming down," he noted, his attention on the sky for a few minutes or so as the bad weather passed by. "It's crazy how much it sounds like mortars, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Annie nodded in agreement. "You know what else sounds like an explosion? A backfiring truck. I sure had a good scare in the middle of town that day. I think I stood frozen for a good five minutes or so."

"I'm sorry." George wasn't sure what else to say.

"Don't be." Annie let her eyes fall shut as the rhythm of George's breathing lulled her into a relaxed state. "I saw Muck and Penkala," she said out of nowhere, the thought sort of just popping into her head out of the blue and bypassing her mental filter. 

George cocked a brow at the girl. "Hmm?"

"During the storm, in my room." Annie elaborated. "I saw them in the shadows; I saw their faces. I've seen them before, too. It's always the same. I see the looks on their faces right before they were killed — the unknowing, innocent expressions on their faces."

"I'm sorry," George repeated.

Annie only sighed. "Don't be," she repeated as well. "It's just how it is. Things will get better."

"You seem so sure."

"I have to. We can't live like this forever." 

As Annie cuddled into George's body he pulled the blanket over top of both of them and adjusted ever-so-slightly so he was lying down with the blonde woman in his arms. Before he let himself try to sleep again, however, he took a few minutes to appreciate the moment he was having right then. 

George Luz had spent years pining after Annie Winslow, and as he laid there with her tucked against his body, he could have sworn he was dreaming — bound to wake at any moment. Then, all of a sudden, the many times George had almost lost Annie flashed through his mind all at once, like the time the two of them had been face-down in the snow during a mortar attack or when they had both been sitting in the middle of an open field with bullets whizzing past their heads left and right; all of the times he almost lost his chance to come clean about his feelings.

However, it seemed like the world had other plans for George and Annie besides death — at least for now. They had both survived, they had both made it through the war with minimal damage, and had both found each other again afterward. 

All there was left to do now was wait and see what was to come next. 


	74. The Reunion

It seemed as though Margot had been in the same situation way too many times recently; standing on the sidewalk, her bag in her hand, staring up at a house that stood before her. This time, however, it felt as though she had never shown up at someone's house unannounced before in her entire life; it felt wrong. 

Margot couldn't exactly pinpoint the exact feeling that was coursing through her body and making her stomach twist into a symphony of knots, but she was able to pick out an overwhelming sense of intrusion that kept internally telling her to turn around and leave. 

The house was an older one and was slightly rundown, but for the neighbourhood it was situated in, it didn't stand out against the other homes around it as being any less taken care of or any less loved. The house was also considerably smaller than Annie's or Bill's had been, but considering Annie had two parents and three siblings and Bill had a fiance, it made sense. Through the window, however, Margot could clearly see that it was much tidier and put together on the inside. 

From what Margot could tell by only standing on the sidewalk, Joe Toye's home mirrored him exactly; rough around the edges on the outside, but surprisingly warm and welcoming on the inside. 

The thought brought a small smile to Margot's face for a split second before the feeling of intrusion flooded back again and the realization that Joe Toye was inside of the home before her and had no idea she was standing right outside came to her. 

"Can I help you with something?" an older man stepped out from the house to the right of Joe's and onto the porch. 

Margot startled a little, having been so caught up in her own thoughts that she had sort of checked out of the world around her for a while. "I'm sorry." she apologized. "What was that?"

"Are you lost?" he asked again, a warm smile on his face indicating that he wasn't the least bit inconvenienced by offering assistance. "I don't mean to pry, but I don't do a whole lot during the day besides sit in my chair and people watch out the window, and you've been standing there for quite a while now." 

"Oh." Margot chuckled a little when she imagined how odd she must have looked eyeing up a house for the past ten minutes or so. "No, no, I'm not lost, but thank you anyway. I'm just thinking."

"Thinking?" he slowly lowered himself onto a beautifully crafted wooden bench that sat on his porch. "Well, I do a lot of that these days. Perhaps I can offer some assistance?"

Margot looked back at Joe's house before taking a few steps closer to the man's porch. "Perhaps you can." she decided to take the kind old man up on his offer. "That house belongs to someone who I haven't seen in quite a while and I'm trying to work up the courage to knock on the door. Do you have any advice for a situation like that?"

"That depends." the man waved for her to come even closer. "Who exactly is the someone inside that house?"

"Well, he's your neighbour." Margot laughed a little. "Don't you know him?"

"Sweetheart, even with my people watching all day long, I can only see so much through my window," he said matter-of-factly. "I've seen him maybe once or twice and I've lived here for over twenty years."

Margot dropped her bag to her feet and placed a hand on her hip. "You know, usually that would worry me, but this is Joe we're talking about, so oddly enough I'm not that surprised." 

"So, enlighten me, who exactly is this 'Joe'?"

Margot searched her brain for the right way to describe Joe before finally settling on, "He's a friend." 

"Well, if he's a friend, then my advice is to just go on over and knock on the door." the man stated. "Life is too short to worry about answers that can only be found by seeking them out yourself."

"That's very wise." Margot nodded. 

"Wisdom is for the thinkers instead of the doers." the man pointed out. "What I have to offer is life experience. You gain quite a bit of it when you've been on the Earth for eighty-five years." 

Margot smiled wide as she reached for her bag again, a newfound sense of confidence rushing through her. "You're very right, thank you." she acknowledged before holding her hand out. "My name is Margot, by the way."

"It was very nice to meet you, Margot." the man shook her hand before introducing himself in turn. "The name's Irving, but Irv is shorter and easier to say."

"It was nice to meet you too, Irv." Margot returned the sentiment. "Hopefully we will have a chance to talk again."

Irv gestured to his front door. "You know where to find me."

Amused by the interaction she had just had, Margot turned on her heel and headed next door to the house she had been eyeing up for what had felt like hours. Stepping up to the door, she flashed Irv a quick thumbs-up before knocking and decidedly seeking out the answers she required by going after them herself. 

Irv watched patiently from his porch as the seconds passed by, and after a full minute with no answer, Margot turned to him again and shrugged before knocking once more. The two waited a little bit longer, but after another minute, it was clear that either no one was home or no one was willing to answer the door. 

Margot tried to peek through the window again, but from what little she could see, there were no signs of life. "Joe?" Margot tried calling just in case she wasn't knocking loud enough. 

Silence...but then, movement? There was a faint shuffling sound coming from inside the house and as Margot pressed her ear against the door out of curiosity, she could tell it was getting louder. As the sound got closer, Margot's heart thumped harder against her chest. Oh God, what was she going to say when he opened the door? It had been months since they had seen each other and in the chaos of getting to this very moment in time, she had completely forgotten to prepare something to say. 

It was too late to back out and try again later and there was no time to think of something clever on the spot, so Margot's mind just went blank as the front door swung open. At first, it didn't feel real to either of them. Staring back at one another, Joe and Margot stood frozen on opposite sides of the threshold, a thousand things racing through their minds but not a single word leaving their lips.

Somehow, despite the time apart, Joe looked exactly how Margot had remembered him, minus the prosthetic leg, crutches, and civilian clothes he was wearing. Bill had been right though, he didn't close the door in her face or turn her away. Instead, he just stood there, which was all Margot could really ask for considering the circumstances.

"Hi." the word just slipped past Margot's lips, the casual greeting severely undermining how she was really feeling at the moment. 

Joe blinked a few times, almost like he was trying to make sure the woman before him was actually there and not just some figment of his imagination. "Hi," he responded in his characteristically raspy voice that Margot hadn't heard in far too long. 

Margot had no idea what to say after 'hi', so in an attempt to ease the tension, she cracked a small smile and sighed. "Look at you, all alive and shit." she copied the same words she had said to him when he had returned from the aid station in Bastogne. 

"I can't believe it." a smile actually began to form on Joe's face as he set his crutches to the side and carefully stepped forward. "You actually came back. You kept your promise."

Margot feigned hurt as she threw her free hand over her chest and gasped. "I'm offended, Joe, that you would think I would ever break a promise." it was soothing how easily she was able to fall back into her usual back-and-forth routine with him. "I sure hope you kept up your end of the deal."

Reaching down his shirt, Joe pulled out two pairs of dog tags, one belonging to him and the other having Margot's name engraved on it. "Never took them off. Not even for a second." 

Margot felt her heart well-up in her chest at the sight of her dog tags sitting safely around Joe's neck and without even thinking, she threw her arms around him and hugged tightly. "God, I missed you so much." she dropped her joking demeanor as she buried her head into the crook of his neck. 

Joe's arms tightened around Margot's body in an instant and he held her tight, determined to never let her go again. "I missed you too." he pushed her hair out of the way so he could whisper into her ear. "So much. Every day."

Tears began to collect in Margot's eyes as she began to finally realize that everything that was happening was actually real; she was really with Joe again and he was really alive. "You lucky bastard." she tried to laugh through the silent sniffles. "Getting out of the war early. Can't believe you didn't take me with you."

"I'm so sorry." Joe was too wrapped up in his own emotions to catch on that Margot was joking again. "I'm so sorry that I left you. I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to. I swear, I didn't mean to. I've regretted it every day since."

Lifting her head so she could look up at Joe, Margot was slightly caught off-guard to see that he was crying as well. Margot had never seen this side of Joe during the war, and if she was being honest with herself, it worried her a little. Joe's unwavering confidence and strength was something Margot had always looked to for comfort when things got tough, and now that he was crumbling right in front of her in her arms, she was unsure of what to do. 

"Oh, Joe, no, it wasn't your fault." Margot held his face in her hands and wiped his tears away with her thumbs. "I was just joking, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I'm not mad at you for getting hurt, I promise, and I don't break my promises, remember?" 

"I'm sorry." he echoed over and over again. "I'm sorry."

Stepping further into the house, Margot dropped her bag to the ground at her feet and closed the front door behind herself. "Please don't cry." she dried her own eyes before returning to Joe's aid. "It's okay. I'm okay, see? I'm just fine. I made it through the war just fine."

"Fuck!" Joe snapped before turning away from Margot and aggressively wiping his face with the back of his hands. "I'm sorry." he apologized again, but this time it was for his current actions instead of his past ones. "Fuck, I'm sorry Margot. I'm sure this isn't the big, happy reunion you were hoping for."

"I didn't have any expectations coming into it," Margot admitted. "I was just happy you didn't slam the door in my face."

Joe slowly turned back to face Margot again. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know." she shrugged. "It's been months since I've seen you. My nerves were making me think of the worst-case scenarios."

"I would never slam the door in your face." he stepped closer and brought his hand up to Margot's cheek, his fingertips brushing over the scars she had gotten from the grenade blast in Haguenau. "What happened?"

Margot backed away from the touch slightly before shaking her head. "A stupid decision, that's what," she answered. "It's nothing."

"Nothing like that wound on your side or  _actually_ nothing?"

"That wound is now a scar as well," Margot told him. "Albeit, a big, nasty-looking scar, but a scar nevertheless. It's nothing — they're both nothing now. Nothing when compared to-" her eyes drifted down to Joe's leg. 

Joe scoffed as he stared down at his own prosthetic. "You'll get used to it," he said. "God knows you don't have any other choice; trust me, I've tried everything else." 

"Does it hurt like Bill's does?" Margot asked. "When I saw him he said it hurts all the time."

"You saw Bill?"

Margot nodded. "Him and Babe. They're the ones who told me where you lived. I couldn't find you any other way. You were really playing hard to get."

"I'm sorry." Joe winced slightly, very aware that he was beginning to sound like a broken record. "When I heard that the war was over and that everyone was coming home I was going to write...I was, but then I couldn't. I had a letter all ready to send with my address and everything and then I realized that I couldn't do that to you. I couldn't keep you from moving on and living your life."

"Moving on?" Margot cocked a brow at Joe. "Why would you think I would want to move on? The only thing I've thought about every day since I saw you last was when I was going to get to see you again."

Joe shrugged. "I don't know. Worst-case scenarios and all, I guess." 

Silence filled the house for about a minute before Joe snapped out of his slight trance and moved his hands to his neck. "Oh, you probably want these back then." he started to pull Margot's dog tags over his head, but before he could get them off, she stopped him. 

"Don't." Margot placed her hand over the tags and pressed them against Joe's chest. "I like that you have them; I like that you're keeping them safe. It makes me feel safe."

"Okay." Joe smiled as he looked down at the bag sitting beside Margot on the floor. "Are you planning on staying a while?"

"If that's okay," Margot replied. "I just sort of carry that bag with me everywhere now because everything I own is in there...it's kind of a long story." 

Joe moved to reach down and pick up the bag, but as he did, he stumbled over his prosthetic slightly and had to balance himself against the wall. "As you can tell, I'm not too proficient with one leg yet." he groaned as he grabbed for his crutches again, making it clear that he was nowhere near as advanced with his prosthetic as Bill was. 

"That's okay." Margot pulled Joe in for another hug. "I'm not in any rush. My life's been much too fast-paced for a while now, so I'm more than willing to slow things down a bit if that's what you need."

"Thank you, Margot." Joe felt his muscles relax at her touch. 

Margot smiled to herself as Joe rested his hand on her back. "That's what friends are for, right?"


	75. Progress

"Okay, so then this piece goes here?" Margot questioned as her hand moved toward one of the white knights on the chessboard. 

"No." Irv smacked her hand away.

"Okay, first of all, ow." Margot laughed as she rubbed her hand dramatically with her other one. "Second of all, why not? Why can't I do that?"

Irv just shook his head as he demonstrated why the proposed move would be bad. "Because it's just plain stupid," he explained as he showed Margot how easy it would be for him to beat her if she had moved her knight that way. "You have to use your head. Always be thinking two or three moves into the future. You can't just live in the here and now."

"I don't know if that's just chess advice or also life advice."

"Take it as you will." Irv only shrugged as he moved Margot's piece for her before moving his own. "I just can't believe you've never played chess before."

"Just never got around to it," Margot replied matter-of-factly. "But hey, maybe that's a good thing. If I knew how to play chess, you wouldn't have to teach me, which means we wouldn't be getting to have these lovely morning conversations where you begrudgingly attempt to teach me a game that I am clearly horrible at." 

Irv scoffed as he motioned for Margot to take her next turn. "No, if you knew how to play chess, we would be playing chess instead of me playing chess and you asking too many questions."

"You really don't know how to look on the bright side, do you?" Margot laughed as she checked her watch, slightly taken aback at how late in the morning it was. "Wow, time sure does fly when you're having fun."

As Margot stood to leave, Irv put his hand out and stopped her. "You never leave in the middle of a game," he told her. "It's bad luck."

Margot rolled her eyes playfully as she sat back down in her chair on Irv's front porch. "Says who?"

"Says me. Just, sit there for two seconds more while I kick your ass and then you can go."

"Oh, please, be my guest." Margot sat back and watched as Irv quickly and effortlessly defeated her in chess for about the hundredth time. 

As Irv made his final move, he smiled up at Margot cheekily. "Checkmate."

"I'm gonna get you next time, just you wait and see." Margot knew she didn't have a chance in hell of ever beating Irv, but she liked to at least pretend that she was getting better with every lesson she had. "You have yourself a wonderful day, Irv. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Say hello to Joe for me." Irv began to pack up the chessboard and pieces as Margot stood up and began to head next door back to Joe's house. 

"Will do." Margot gave a wave as she tightened her sweater around herself some more to counteract the cool, morning breeze. 

Stepping through the threshold of the house, Margot wasn't the least bit surprised to see that the kitchen and living room were both empty. It had been about a week or so since Margot had arrived at Joe's house and one thing she had learned — besides the fact that she was horrible at chess — was that Joe lived a pretty quiet, solitary life. He rarely left the house, let alone his bed, and it was clear that he was struggling with many of the same post-war side effects as she and Annie had been. 

The only difference was that while Margot and Annie actively tried to fight against their struggles, Joe was letting them consume him. 

Shuffling down the hallway, Margot pushed open the door to Joe's bedroom and leaned against the doorway, her arms folded over her chest. Joe's eyes were closed, but she could tell he wasn't asleep; despite the many hours he spent in bed, he didn't sleep a whole lot. 

"Irv says hello." Margot broke the silence. Joe only let out a small groan in response. "He wiped the board with me again. I'm really bad at chess."

This time Joe snickered a little, but still no words. Sighing, Margot entered the room and knelt down beside the bed, her elbows resting on the mattress and her face inches away from Joe's. "I'm serious, this is a real problem," she whispered. "It's almost impressive how bad I am. I don't think anyone could suck this bad even if they tried."

"I'm very sorry to hear that." Joe finally spoke but kept his eyes shut.

"Do you know how to play chess?" Margot asked.

Cracking open one eye ever-so-slightly, Joe looked back at Margot and exhaled. "Yes."

"You should come play me then," she suggested, hoping maybe it would get Joe out of bed, even if just for an hour or so. "I guarantee you will win." 

"Well, where's the fun in playing if I know I'm going to win?"

"Okay, I lied." Margot looked around jokingly to make sure no one was listening. "I'm actually fantastic at chess and I just pretend to be bad to make Irv feel good. Now you have to play me to see if I'm telling the truth or not."

Joe closed his eyes again and let out a grumble, the sound muffled as he buried his face into the pillow. "I don't want to play chess, Margot."

"Well, then what do you want to do?" Margot was willing to do almost anything at that point. "You have to get out of bed eventually. It's ten in the morning."

Reaching one arm out from under the covers and grabbing onto Margot's hand with his own, Joe kept his face planted firmly in the pillow as he spoke, his words only just audible. "Why can't we just do what we did yesterday? I liked having you read to me from that book you're reading."

"Because we can't do the same thing every day and I think it's time you left the house," Margot stated. "I know you don't want to, and I know it's hard, but we have to start somewhere. Why don't we just go sit outside for a little while? The sun won't kill you, I promise."

"I know the sun won't kill me."

"Well, you act like it sometimes." Margot squeezed Joe's hand and stood up. "Nothing is going to happen if we go sit in the backyard. It'll just be me and you. No one will be there to see you stumble." 

Joe slowly lifted his head from the pillow and looked up at Margot, his expression still hazy from being in bed for so long. "Just you and me?"

"Unless you want me to invite Irv over."

"God, no."

"Then, yes, just me and you."

"Okay, fine." Joe rolled onto his back and pushed himself up so he was sitting up. "I'll meet you out there."

Margot looked at the prosthetic leg and crutches that were propped up against Joe's bedside table. "Do you want any help?" she offered even though she knew the answer already.

"No."

"Okay." Margot knew better than to push the subject, especially since she had just pushed harder than she normally would to get him out of bed. So, in the meantime, she decided to be productive and grab a blanket to set up outside under the large tree that sat in the corner of Joe's small backyard. 

With her book in her hands and her back against the trunk of the tree, Margot read a few pages of the book she had picked up from this little, used book shop in town that Irv had told her about. It was a fantastic read so far, and even though Margot wasn't sure she would enjoy a story about a man at sea, she surprisingly found the tale rather thrilling. 

What was even more shocking, however, was that Joe seemed to like it as well. One evening, as Margot had been sitting on the couch reading, Joe had asked her what the book was about and she read him the short blurb on the back cover. Intrigued, Joe sat down beside the woman and began to read over her shoulder; however, that got annoying quite quickly, so Margot opted to just read out loud. Ever since then, Joe had asked Margot to read to him at least once a day, and the day before, when Margot had failed at getting Joe out of bed, she sat down beside him and read to him for hours on end. 

Hearing the back door open, Margot looked up from her book to see Joe coming her way, the look on his face displaying unwillingness and discontent. "Hey, you're reading without me," he commented when he saw Margot sitting up against the tree with the book in her hands.

"I'll go back for you," she said as she watched him slowly make his way through the grass, his steps still uncertain and his eyes glued to his feet. "You're doing well," she told him as he made it to the blanket. "There's a definite improvement, even if it has only been a week." 

"If you say so." Joe huffed as he glared at the ground next to where Margot was sitting. "Now how in the hell am I supposed to get down there?"

Putting her book down, Margot stood up and took Joe's crutches from him, promptly leaning them against the tree before taking hold of his arms. "Trust me." she could already tell he was uncomfortable by how his muscles tensed when she touched him. "I'm not going to let you fall."

"I'm not worried about you letting me fall." Joe, despite his reservations, allowed Margot to help him down onto the ground. "I'm worried about how much of a beating my ego is taking from this."

As soon as Joe was safely on the ground, Margot let go of him and planted her hands onto her hips. "Your ego?" she looked down at him with an amused smile. "News flash, Joe, but I've never cared about your ego before, and I'm not about to start anytime soon."

"And there's the snarky remark I was waiting for." Joe squinted his eyes as he looked up at the sun, the shade of the tree still covering most of his body, however. "So, are you happy now? I'm outside." 

"I am very happy, thank you." Margot beamed. "Doesn't it feel better to get some fresh air?"

"Well, it doesn't feel worse, I'll give you that."

"I'll take it."

Leaning back against the tree as well, Joe pointed to the book sitting beside Margot. "How much farther did you get without me?"

"I only read a few pages," Margot assured him. "Do you want me to go back to where we left off yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Margot picked up the paperback again and flipped through to where she had left her bookmark before beginning to read out loud. "Chapter sixty-five. That mortal man should feed upon the creature that feeds his lamp, and, like Stubb, eat him by his own light, as you may say; this seems so outlandish a thing that one must needs go a little into the history and philosophy of it."

For hours, Margot and Joe sat underneath the shade of the tree and took turns reading as neither one of them wanted to go back inside but Margot's throat was starting to get dry and sore. Before they knew it, it was mid-afternoon, they had gone through a sizable chunk of what remained of the book, and they were both starving.

"Okay, let's stop for today," Margot suggested as Joe reached the end of the chapter they were on. Even though she was sure she could listen to his voice all day long, the rumble in her stomach was taking away from her enjoyment of the story. "I'm hungry."

"Me too." Joe agreed. "But I don't want to get up."

Margot chuckled. "See? I told you it wouldn't be so bad." she bumped his shoulder with her own. "I don't want to get up either. The mixture of warmth from the sun and the coolness from the shade has lulled my body into a state of utter relaxation."

"Do we even have any food in the house?" Joe cocked a single eyebrow.

"I have no idea." Margot pushed herself up onto her feet. "I'll go check. Be right back." 

Wandering back into the house, Margot headed straight for the kitchen and began sorting through everything Joe had in the fridge and cabinets, trying her best to think of something she could possibly cook — once again wishing she possessed her mother's culinary skills. 

Opening one of the higher up cabinets, Margot began to feel around for anything useful. Reaching as far back as she could go, Margot thought she felt a box of some sort, but in the process of grabbing for it, she knocked a coffee tin onto the floor. 

A hushed curse left the woman's lips as she looked down, expecting to see the floor covered in coffee grounds. What she ended up seeing instead, however, was something she had not been expecting. The lid of the tin had popped off in the tumble, but instead of being filled with coffee, the tin was filled with paper. 

Curious, Margot reached down and picked one of the folded papers up. Upon unfolding it and taking a quick glance, Margot knew exactly what it was right away; it was one of the letters she had sent to Joe while she had still been in Europe. Margot picked up another paper, and another, and they were all letters she had written to Joe. 

Neatly folded and in perfect condition, Joe had kept all of the letters she had ever sent safely in an old coffee tin. 

"I heard a crash, is everything okay?" Joe suddenly appeared at the door, his crutches nowhere in sight, but Margot was much too caught up in the situation at hand to comment on that. 

Looking from Joe to the letters in her hand, Margot felt very guilty for having snooped through his things, even if it was unintentionally. "I'm sorry." she apologized. "I didn't mean to...they fell and the lid popped off and I went to pick them up and-"

"Margot, it's fine." Joe waved it off. "It's not like you don't know what's in the letters. You wrote them yourself, for crying out loud."

"Oh, right." Margot realized how silly she was acting and began to put the letters back into the tin. 

"Hey, be careful with them." Joe walked over and took the letters from Margot's hands before placing them back into the tin gently. "They are important to me."

A smile played at the corners of Margot's mouth as she watched Joe put everything back into place and press the plastic lid back over the tin. "I kept them too." she finally said.

Joe looked up at her, a quizzical expression on his face. "What?"

"The letters you sent me." she elaborated. "I kept them too." 

"You did?"

"Every single one." Margot nodded. "Even the one where you went on for about five paragraphs about how much Bill was getting on your nerves. I like that one; it makes me laugh. I read them when I can't sleep."

"I used to keep yours on my bedside table and read them every morning," Joe confessed. "Once you got here I stored them away for safekeeping."

Margot's smile was spanning her whole face by then, and even though she didn't want to admit it to herself, she felt tears beginning to gather in her eyes. "Okay, if we keep up with this sappy shit I'm going to start crying." Margot took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "I'm still starving. Let's find something to eat."

As Margot spun around to return to her food hunt, Joe grabbed her by the arm and stopped her. "I really did miss you."

"I missed you too" Margot took the tin in her hands and placed it back onto the shelf that she had knocked it off of. "And you know what else I miss? Your crutches. Look, you didn't use them!"

Joe looked back out the door at where his crutches were still sitting against the tree. "Oh, yeah, look at that." he played it off very nonchalantly. "I just heard the crash and thought maybe you hurt yourself. I didn't even think about them."

"Progress." Margot smiled wide as she picked up a bag of bread from the counter. "Now, from what we have here, we can do sandwiches or sandwiches. Which one would you rather?"

"Sandwiches." Joe made his way over to the counter. "What can I do to help?"

Grabbing a cutting board and sliding it over to him, Margot then handed over a knife and a tomato that had definitely seen better days, but could still pass as edible. "Do some slicing"

"Okay."

As the two worked together at making the easiest and laziest dinner possible, the sun began to dip in the sky, bringing with it a cool breeze that matched the one that had been present that morning. "Hey, you know what we should do tomorrow?" Margot opened the fridge to search for condiments.

Joe's eyes never left the tomato. "What?"

"Go shopping." 


	76. Every Scar

"And I only am escaped alone to tell thee." Margot read aloud the closing line of the book before slowly shutting it and setting it to the side. "I can't believe we finished it...it feels so weird to not have another chapter to look forward to."

"We can always pick up another book," Joe suggested, the look on Margot's face as she stared down at the book bringing a smile to his face. "I can't remember the last time I read a book from start to finish."

Margot nodded in agreement. "Me either. I'm kind of surprised I liked that book though, considering I used to hate reading." 

"Why did you used to hate reading?" Joe inquired as he shifted slightly on the couch and turned his body to face Margot.

"I have no idea." Margot shrugged as she tucked her legs up underneath herself and turned on the lamp beside herself, filling the dark room with a warm glow. "Maybe it was just because in school we were forced to read, and I was a kid who just didn't like being told what to do. I was kind of a little shit, to be completely honest."

Joe eyed Margot up, his eyes scanning her from head to feet. "Yeah, I can see that." he laughed at his own dig. 

"Rude." Margot deadpanned before letting a smile crack through her facade. "So, you think we should get another book? What do you have in mind?"

"I haven't a clue." Joe shook his head. "Maybe we'll just have to go to the book store tomorrow and pick something out together."

Margot dramatically clasped her hand over her chest and gasped. "What's this? Is Joe Toye actually suggesting we leave the house? Without having to be persuaded? I must be dreaming."

"Shut up."

"I'm only joking." Margot chuckled softly. "I'm just glad to see that you're getting back to your old self. I missed the Joe Toye that wasn't afraid to call me on my bullshit and bicker back and forth with me about useless crap for hours on end."

"Yeah, I missed him too." Joe agreed, a sly smirk spreading onto his face as he thought back to one of his favourite memories. "Remember when you were covered in pine needles and you called yourself a tree?"

Margot's face lit up. "Yes, I do." she nodded. "I believe I was 'the smallest tree you had ever seen'."

"Nah." Joe waved Margot off. "More like the _best_  tree I've ever seen." 

"I was the best tree." Margot tried her best not to think about what had happened right after the silly tree debate. "That was such a weird day...one second everything was fine and then..."

"...nothing was fine."

Turning her attention to her bag that sat in the corner of the room, Margot exhaled. "It's so weird to think that my whole life fits inside of that one bag," she commented, more thinking out loud than anything. "I thought there would have been more stuff I would have wanted to take from the house but...I guess it wasn't ever really my house — or at least, he hasn't been for a very long time. It's just a house now." 

"Hey, you have more than just that bag." Joe rested a hand on Margot's shoulder. "You have this place. This is your home now; that is, if you want it to be."

"Why wouldn't I want it to be?" 

Joe averted his gaze and stared down at his hands. "Well, you know...I just don't want you to feel like you  _have_  to stay here — that you're stuck here."

Margot cocked a single brow. "Stuck here?"

"I'm not dumb. I know that I can't offer you the life you want or, more importantly, deserve." Joe mumbled, his fingers pulling at one another. "I just don't want you to feel like you're stuck here with me and my...disability."

"Oh, Joe." Margot tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and shook her head. "No, I could never feel stuck with you. I've thought about being with you again every single day since we were separated and these past weeks have been the happiest I have been in ages."

Joe slowly looked up again, his eyes meeting Margot's. "Really?"

Margot wished she could prove to Joe once and for all just how much she really meant what she said, but he was a broken man, and it was going to take more than a few nice words and kind gestures to put him back together again. There was only one thing Margot could think to try, and she hoped beyond hope that it would work.

Grabbing Joe's hand in hers, Margot pressed his fingertips against the scars on her face. "I got these in Haguenau, France during a late-night patrol across German lines. We were to capture German soldiers and bring them back across the river; Martin and I were leading the whole thing. Long story short, a younger paratrooper named Eugene Jackson was about to be blasted by his own grenade so I tried to shield him with my own body. I got these from the explosion fragments. Jackson wasn't so lucky...he died not long after."

"Margot-" Joe started, but Margot didn't let him finish.

"And this..." Margot lifted her shirt and pressed Joe's hand to the large scar on her ribcage. "...this is the one I got on D-day. It feels horrible and it looks even worse. Do these scars change how you feel about me? Do my scars change who I am as a person?"

Joe's eyes were wide. "God, no. Margot, nothing could ever change how I feel about you."

"That's how I feel about you and your leg." Margot proved her point. "No amount of missing limbs could ever change how I feel about you. I love you for everything you are, not everything you aren't."

A blanket of silence was thrown over the room. Those three little words had been said and there was no taking them back now, not that Margot wanted to; it was how she felt, and she didn't want to hide anything from Joe. 

"You...love me?" Joe stammered. 

Margot smiled sweetly. "I do, and I think I've known it for a while. Just, right now, at this moment, I truly feel it. But I don't want you to feel like you need to say it-"

"I love you too." Joe encapsulated Margot's face in his hands, pulled her close, and kissed her. After years of an unspoken connection that both Margot and Joe were too afraid to confront, all of the feelings were finally coming to light. The kiss was soft and gentle, and although electricity was running through their bodies, there was also a familiar sense present, almost like the two had kissed a hundred times before — or like they were always meant to end up together.

"I'm so glad I found you," Margot whispered against Joe's lips. "And I'm so glad you didn't slam the door in my face and I'm so glad you kept all of my letters...but most of all, I'm so glad that you love me too."

Joe pressed his lips to Margot's once more. "I've loved you for years, and by God, I want to love you for years more. Please, stay here with me."

"Are you asking me to move in?" Margot clarified, her breathing uneven from the kisses.

"Yes." Joe was firm on his answer. "Yes, I am asking you to move in. What do you say? You wanna have more than just a bag?"

"I say yes." Margot nodded enthusiastically as she wrapped her arms around Joe's neck and kissed him again. "Of course, I say yes." 

Slowly, Joe worked his mouth across Margot's jaw, down her neck, and onto her collarbone. With an airy moan, Margot tilted her head to the side to expose more of her neck. Not minutes before the two had been quietly sitting on the couch, reading a book, and now things were heating up much faster than either of them had ever anticipated. 

However, there were no nerves associated with the acts of intimacy. Just like the kiss, it felt  _right_  — it felt meant to be. 

Sitting up, Margot threw her leg over Joe's lap and straddled him, her hands resting on his cheeks. Whilst making direct eye contact, Joe grabbed the hem of Margot's shirt and slowly tugged it over her head. Then, Joe's eyes trailed over Margot's body, taking in every aspect of her — every freckle, every curve, and every scar. "I love you," Joe repeated, his raspy voice as soft and as warm as Margot had ever heard it. "I love all of you. Every. Single. Bit." 

"I love you too." Margot beamed. "One and a half legs and all."


	77. Two Paths

Standing in the doorway of her front door, Annie rested her shoulder against the wooden frame — the paint chipped and faded — and wrapped her sweater tighter around her body, shivering a little as a gust of wind sent her blonde locks flying. "I really wish you didn't have to go." she smiled up at George, who was standing before her on the porch with his bag in hand. 

"I wish I didn't have to go either." George leaned over to plant a soft kiss on Annie's forehead. "But we'll see each other again soon, I promise. I just have to go back home for a while to sort some things out."

Annie sighed and wished her heart didn't hurt as much as it did at that moment. "I understand." she reached out and took his hands in hers. "I just  _really_  wish you didn't have to go."

"Not a second will go by that I won't think of you." George squeezed Annie's small hands for reassurance. "I'll miss you every day."

"I'll miss you too." Annie returned the sentiment. "Okay, we're getting disgustingly sappy now. You should go. I'll see you soon."

"I'll see you soon," George repeated as he slipped his hands out of Annie's and turned to leave. Before he even got to the steps, however, he paused and turned back around. "I almost forgot something." a cheeky smile spread across his face as he fished something out of his pocket. "Here; a promise is a promise." he held out a single Hershey chocolate bar. "Two bars for one kiss; that was the deal."

Taking the candy from George, Annie just laughed. "You remembered." she held the offering as if it were the most sacred thing she had ever received. "You surprise me every day, George Luz."

"Hopefully all good surprises, I hope."

"Yes, all good."

"Okay, I really do have to go now because if I don't, I'm afraid that cab driver might run us both off of a bridge." George pointed over his shoulder at the sour-faced old man who sat in the driver's seat of the cab, his icy glare focused on George's back. "Goodbye, Annie."

"Goodbye, George." Annie took a step out onto the porch and watched as George walked down the walkway, loaded his things into the trunk of the cab, and then climbed into the yellow vehicle. Almost immediately, the driver stepped on the gas, but not before George waved through the window. 

Annie watched as the cab took off down the street before disappearing around a corner. With the smile slowly dissipating from her face, Annie exhaled hard. Although George had only visited a few days, it had felt as though he had been there for much longer — their relationship had built much faster than she thought possible for such a short period of time. 

"Miss Winslow." the mailman called as he approached, a letter already ready in his hand. "Good morning."

Annie just smiled and nodded. "Good morning."

"The wind's a little strong today, isn't it?" the always friendly mailman chatted before holding out the mail. "This here is addressed to you, ma'am."

"Oh," Annie took the envelope and flipped it over to where her name was scribbled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it; just doing my job." he gave a slight tip of his cap before continuing on his way to the next house on the street. 

Out of habit, Annie was half expecting the letter to be from her family; but of course, it wasn't. There was no identifying information about the sender except that the letter had come from California, and since Annie was blanking on anyone in particular that she knew from California, she tucked the letter into the pocket of her sweater and headed back inside. 

Just as she closed the door behind her, Elaine emerged from the kitchen, a tea towel in her hands. "It looks like it's going to rain out there," she commented as she peeked through the window. "Goodness knows my garden could use it."

"Yeah, there are some darker clouds rolling in." Annie participated in the small talk as she slipped the envelope out of her pocket and laid it down on the small table in the entryway. "Could be another thunderstorm." 

Elaine smiled sweetly, mulling the idea of bringing up George around in her head. There was no denying that her daughter clearly had feelings for the man who had just left, and Elaine just wanted to be apart of her daughter's life. "So, do you know when you'll see him again?"

"George?" Annie clarified. "I don't know. Hopefully soon but he said he has some stuff to do back home; probably to do with his family and such." 

"A family man." Elaine nodded. "That's good."

Annie snickered a little and shook her head. "Mom, don't get ahead of yourself there." 

"What?" Elaine played coy as she turned to head back into the kitchen. "I have no idea what you're talking about...just make sure to let us know when the wedding is."

"Mom!" Annie followed her mother into the kitchen, a goofy smile on her face all the while. 

"I'm only joking," Elaine assured her daughter. "It's just good to see you so happy, is all. I can tell you really like him, and it's beyond obvious that he really likes you. I approve of him; he's a good man."

Annie tried to hide the wide, toothy grin on her face. "I think so too." 

Deciding that she wanted to keep herself busy so she didn't start to miss George too much, Annie helped her mother prep dinner for that night, which was to be a delicious pot roast, steamed vegetables, and mashed potatoes. While Annie worked at rinsing and peeling potatoes, she completely forgot about George and the letter she had received that morning. 

For the rest of the day, Annie tried her hardest to keep her mind occupied. She spent some time with her younger siblings, did some laundry, completed some chores, and when she couldn't think of anything else to do, she sat down and read until it was time for dinner. 

When the mouth-watering aroma of pot roast began to fill the house, one by one the Winslow children would emerge from wherever they had been hiding out and wander down to the kitchen. Once the whole family had gathered and the food was ready, they sat down and ate together, just the six of them, for the first time in a while. Although having guests was nice, it was also a special treat to just spend some time with each other. 

With the warm glow of the lamps, the outstanding food, and the incredible conversation, Annie had a flashback to one of the last meals she had shared with her family before she left for WAAC; another great meal, another great conversation. Annie's heart filled with a warm, sort of fuzzy feeling that made her smile from ear to ear. 

For so many years Annie had gone without her family, and after a while, she had begun to form a whole new family with her fellow paratroopers; and right then, at that very moment, it became crystal clear that one person can indeed have more than one family. 

When dinner came to an end, it was Annie and Philip's turn to clean up, so as the rest of the family went their separate ways, the two eldest siblings began to clear the table and wash the dishes. 

"So, George is gone now?" Philip asked as he dunked a pot into the hot, soapy water in the sink.

"Yeah, he left this morning." Annie nodded as she stacked up the plates from the table. "But I'm sure he'll come back soon. He'll miss you too much to stay away for very long."

Philip chuckled. "Hey, he's a cool guy. We had some good conversations."

"Yeah, I know. I'm glad you like him."

Philip began to rinse the now clean pot. "Everyone likes him, even Dad; and you know how cautious he was about Steve."

"Well, obviously, Dad knew something we didn't," Annie concluded. "He's intuitive like that...just wish he would have shared his insights with me a little sooner."

"Yeah, well, who needs _Steve_?" Philip said his name as if it left a disgusting taste in his mouth. "You've got plenty of other admirers now, including whoever wrote you that letter that's sitting unopened on the table beside the door."

Annie suddenly remembered the letter. "Oh, yeah, I had completely forgotten about that. Guess I should open it."

"Yeah, you should." Philip took his hands out of the sink and dried them. "And you should let me be there when you do because it sounds way more interesting than washing dishes."

After she had cleared the table, Annie retrieved the envelope and read over the back one last time. "I still have no idea who it's from." she shrugged as she began to tear it open. "I must know someone from California, but right now my mind is just completely blanking."

"Okay, enough talking, more reading." Philip tried to grab for the letter, but Annie yanked it out of his reach just in time. 

"Take it down a notch you psycho." Annie took a step back and unfolded the paper. "You can read it after I'm done." 

Sitting down and folded his arms against his chest, Philip leaned back and huffed. "Fine."

Rolling her eyes, Annie sat down as well and began to read the mystery letter, Philip staring at her the entire time trying to gauge the contents based off of his sister's facial expressions.

 

_Annie,_

_I'm writing to you for a bunch of different reasons, but mostly because I still think about you often and a part of me hopes you still think about me as well. I wanted to let you know that I'm doing well. I got my job back at the cab company and business is booming — just like I had hoped, I'm making a lot of money from the sailors returning home._

_I hope you're doing well too, but from what I've heard through the grapevine, you are — just like I had predicted._

_To keep this letter simple and short (because I hate writing) I'm just going to cut to the point. After you kissed me in Austria, I believed there was something between us that was special. You always saw through me, even when I desperately tried to keep my distance. You were like an annoying little kitten that just kept following me around, meowing at me  — at first, you were unbelievably annoying, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't hate you; you grew on me._  

_After all of this, now we're here, living on opposite sides of the country, and the time apart has given me time to think. It was so stupid of George and me to play that game with you; you didn't deserve that. I'm sorry and the only reason I can give you is that I liked you. I didn't want to like you, but I did...I still do; but I know you've moved on and now, so do I._

_I miss you a lot and I probably still will for a while longer, so I wrote this letter as some desperate attempt at closure._

_Thank you for saving my ass over and over again and for always being so positive about even the worst things. I wish you a long and happy life and I won't ever be able to forget you — no matter how hard I try._

_If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me._

_\- Joe Liebgott_

 

Drawing in a deep breath, Annie placed the letter face down on the tabletop. Philip went to grab the paper, but when he saw the look of confusion and sadness on his sister's face, he stopped and decided to respect her privacy. "Who's it from?" he asked.

"Just a guy I served with." Annie folded up the letter again and held it tightly in her hand. "He was just writing to tell me that he...he's moving on."

"Moving on?" Philip questioned.

Annie smiled a little, the sadness fading away as she was suddenly overcome with a feeling of relief. Finally, for the first time in months, she didn't have the weight of an undecidable decision on her shoulders. "Yeah, he's moving on." she breathed out. "And now, so am I."

"You are?" Philip was really trying his best to figure out what was going on. "I'm assuming by the look on your face that this is a good thing?"

"Yes, this is a very good thing," Annie affirmed. "For once, I don't feel trapped between two paths, unsure of which to follow. I finally know what I want."

Philip threw this hands into the air in celebration. "This is good!" he cheered. "What do you want?"

"I...I want to be happy. I want to be with someone who makes me happy and I want to do something that makes me happy." Annie concluded. 

Philip leaned in, his excitement almost visible as an aura around him. "Okay, who makes you happy?"

"George." Annie didn't even have to think about it. "George makes me happy." 

"Good! Now,  _what_ makes you happy?"

Annie was silent for a few seconds before it finally hit her, almost like a tidal wave. "Helping people makes me happy," she answered. "Although being a medic was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done, it was also one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. It made me happy."

"Okay, how do you continue to do that?" Philip followed up.

Annie thought for a moment and when she remembered the letter she had gotten from Captain Miller a few weeks earlier and the offer he had given, her face lit up. "I know exactly how to do it." she beamed. "And I know exactly who to talk to about it too."


	78. Less Thinking, More Acting

With her ear to the receiver of the telephone, Annie held one hand over her chest as she waited to hear a voice from the other end of the call. Standing in front of her, a giddy look on his face, Philip keep mouthing 'anything yet?' over and over again, which served as more of a relief from Annie's nerves than an annoyance. 

Annie wasn't quite sure why she was so nervous — maybe because, for the first time in a long time, she was taking a leap in the direction of the future she wanted and was unsure if she was going to land on her feet again afterward or not. Before the blonde woman could let her thoughts spiral too much, however, she heard a jumbling and straightened up, her eyes widening.

 _"Hello?"_  the familiar voice of Captain Miller sounded. 

"Captain Miller." Annie's planned out speech had suddenly left her completely. "I'm not quite sure if you remember me or not, but it's Annie Winslow."

There was a slight pause, almost as if Captain Miller was trying to recall the name; however, he had never forgotten about Annie and Margot.  _"Antonia Winslow."_  there was a slight rustling as the man on the other end settled himself in his desk chair.  _"Of course I remember. What can I do for you?"_

"Well, sir, I was wondering if the offer you had presented in your letter was still on the table."

Another moment of silence.  _"What did you have in mind?"_

"I was hoping you had a job for me." Annie flashed Philip a thumbs-up, indicating that the conversation was going well so far. 

Captain Miller sat back in his chair and exhaled, a small smirk spreading across his face.  _"I think that could be arranged. What did you have in mind?"_

●●●

Loading her small bag into the passenger's seat of her dad's truck, Annie pushed the door shut and dusted her hands off on her jacket. With her dad by her side and the rest of her family waiting on the porch, Annie gave a slight nod, silently telling everyone that she was ready to go. 

"Are you sure you don't want one of us to go with you?" Arthur asked one last time, knowing that Annie would refuse but feeling obligated to offer again as his fatherly duty. 

Annie shook her head. "I'm sure," she assured. "This is something I just feel like I really have to do on my own. You understand, right?"

"Of course we do, honey." Arthur placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "We survived four years without you while you were at war, so I think we'll manage for a few days. Just take it easy on the highways. I can't afford to buy a new truck."

"I'm really going to try my hardest not to do any crashing or anything." Annie rolled her eyes playfully. "I'm only going to be gone for a day or so at most. This thing...it just can't wait any longer."

"Well, you're an adult, so I guess I just have to trust you." Arthur joked. "Have fun, sweetheart."

"Thanks, Dad."

Turning to the rest of her family, Annie gave a big wave before climbing into the driver's seat of the truck's cab and turning the key in the ignition. With one last glance toward her parents and siblings, Annie adjusted the rearview mirror and pulled out of the driveway and down the road. 

With nothing but the sound of the vehicle around her, Annie let her mind wander as she followed the directions on the map she had marked down before beginning her trip. With a left turn that took her out of her neighbourhood, a fluttering feeling came over Annie's stomach — a particular one that she hadn't felt since that moment she had peered out of the bus window and seen the sign for Camp Mirage. 

It was a feeling that signified new beginnings, and to be honest, it was a feeling that Annie was starting to become quite fond of. 

At that moment, the only thought inside of Annie's head was how the younger version of herself from six or so years prior would feel about who she had become. More than anything — more than any other person in the world — Annie hoped she had made her younger self proud; the younger self that dreamt of breaking the mold and doing something bigger than herself.

On the open road, heading out of Connecticut, Annie quite literally had the whole world in front of her; and as tempting as that sounded, Annie had learned that you didn't need everything to be happy. Annie didn't need everything, she just needed one thing, and that one thing was currently residing in Rhode Island. 

The drive was only just shy of two hours long, and before Annie knew it, she was pulling up to the address she had written down on the top of her map. The home was somehow exactly how Annie had imagined it; it was big and beautiful and looked like it could indeed fit twelve people inside of it. 

Unlike Annie's home, it was perfectly well kept and there was a beautiful garden in the front yard, which was very impressive considering there had, at one point, been ten children running around, no doubt causing havoc. 

Annie sat in the parked truck for a few minutes — not because she was nervous, but more so because she was full of so much adrenaline, she wanted to ruminate on the feeling of all of the excitement. After a little while, however, before Annie could get out of the vehicle, the front door to the house opened up and two kids, possibly around Tim's age, ran out and down the sidewalk. 

Standing in the doorway, an older woman was leaning against the frame, watching as her children took off down the street. When Annie finally stepped out of the truck, the woman turned to her, looked her up and down, and smiled. "I was wondering if I was ever going to meet you or if you were just a delusion George had made up." she stepped out of the home and began to cross the lawn. "Either you're Annie Winslow or I'm making quite the fool of myself right now."

Annie was slightly surprised, but when the woman stuck out her hand, Annie shook it and found her voice. "Yes, yes, I am Annie," she confirmed. "You must be George's mother. I've heard a lot about you."

"Likewise." George's mother started back for the house and waved for Annie to follow. "Well, come on then. I'll give George a holler."

Following in the woman's footsteps, Annie stepped just past the threshold of the home before stopping and waiting for George. In the meantime, she took a look around at the living room and the framed photos that lined the wall up the staircase. 

Even from the limited view that Annie had, she could tell that the home was welcoming. There was a warm, worn-in feeling that filled the rooms that could only come from years of being used by a large, loving family. It very much reminded Annie of her own home, except on a grander scale.

There was a constant buzzing from the many people inhabiting the two-story cape-cod style home and Annie didn't know how anyone got anything done; she felt overwhelmed in her home sometimes and she only had three siblings, not nine. 

Caught up in her own thoughts and feeling a little bit out of place, Annie hadn't noticed George poke his head out from around a corner. "Annie?!" his face was filled with shock as he approached her. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi." Annie smiled wide as George took her hand and led her back outside to where they could have some privacy. "I came to see you," she answered, even though that bit was obvious.

"Well, yes, but I just saw you a few days ago." George pulled the woman in for a hug anyway, always happy to see her, no matter the occasion. "I know you said you were going to miss me, but I didn't think you'd miss me this much."

Annie laughed as she and George wandered around to the side of the house where a large oak tree stood. "No, it's not that." she shook her head. "Well, I mean, I did miss you, but that's not the sole reason I am here...or, actually, maybe it is? I'm not too sure, to be honest with you. I'm trying to do more acting and less thinking, which in the long run might not be the best plan, but I'm just going with it."

"You're beginning to ramble." George took Annie's face in his hands and kissed her softly; a gentle gesture to get her to shut up and slow down a little. "What's up? What was so important that you had to drive all the way here?"

"I've found a job." Annie started.

George's face lit up. "You did?! That's incredible! I'm so happy for you."

Suddenly, Annie was lifted off of her feet and swung around. The pair laughed happily, and for a split second, Annie forgot about the rest of the news she had. Oh, how wonderful it would have been if they could be like that forever; happy in each other's arms.

"There's something else though." Annie decided to get the rough part over with before she overthought it too much. "It's in Asheville, Tennessee."

George stopped, the joy on his face fading fast. "Tennesse?" he repeated. "That's...that's a lot farther away than New Haven."

"Yes, it is," Annie confirmed. "It's about a thirteen-hour drive from here. Normally, I wouldn't take a job so far away, but this is something I know I will love; this is something I know I'm good at. This is something I really want."

George was silent for a few seconds as he processed, and finally, as he reached up to scratch the back of his neck, he sighed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to make it work, right? I mean, I'm sure it's not impossible."

"It's not." Annie took George's hands in hers and looked up at him, her brown eyes turning auburn in the sun. "I knew it would be a lot for me to come down here and ask something like this of you; not when you didn't have any assurances about us. I love you, George Luz, and I don't ever want to choose between you and something else. I want this job, but I also want you."

George's heart began to pound against his chest and a wide, toothy grin spread across his face. "I love you too." was all he managed to say before Annie continued.

"It's taken me a while to figure out what I really want. Joining the army was the first thing I have ever really done for myself in my whole life, and although it may have seemed like the most idiotic idea to some people, I met you, and that alone offsets all of the death and destruction I witnessed. You bring light to the darkness, even when it seems like the sun can never shine again." slowly, slightly unsure of herself, Annie lowered herself down onto one knee. "I know this is very unusual, but then again, what about our relationship isn't? For the first time in my life, I am finally one-hundred percent sure of what I want. I want you, George; I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I really hope you want to spend the rest of your life with me. George Luz, will you marry me?"

George was awestruck, his mouth hung open and eyes wide as he stared down at Annie. A million thoughts were rushing around his mind and his heart was beating so fast now that he was sure it would burst right out of his chest. Crouching down so that he was eye-level with Annie, George began to feel as though he might start crying. "You're...you're being serious?" he choked out. 

"Yes." Annie nodded, her own eyes beginning to fill with tears. "Dead serious. I want to marry you. Do-do you want to marry me?"

"There is nothing more I want in this world than to marry you." George engulfed Annie in a tight hug and brought them both down onto the grass. "Yes, as weird as it is to not be the one proposing considering I've been planning it since we first kissed, I will marry you. I just have one question for you in return."

Annie planted a kiss on George's cheek. "What is it?" 

"Since in this scenario you are the man and I am the woman, do you think I'll look fat in a wedding dress?"

"Stop it!" Annie lightly smacked George on the chest. "I was really nervous about that!"

"Why?" George laughed. "Did you actually think I would say no? Have I not made it clear enough how head-over-heels in love with you I am?" he began to pepper Annie's face with kisses. "Does this help?"

"Yes, yes." Annie giggled. "I get it!"

As a cool breeze blew through the yard, George tightened his arms around Annie and pulled her close, the both of them still lying in the grass. Peering down at Annie, George pushed a blonde lock out of her face. "So, do I get a ring?" he whispered.

Looking up at George, Annie sheepishly smiled. "Yeah, about that...I may have done a little too much acting and not enough thinking. This was a very spur of the moment decision. I didn't have time to get a ring."

"Well, then I retract my previous yes." George nuzzled the top of Annie's head. "So, we're getting married and moving to Tennesse? Is that the plan?"

Annie nodded. "If you're okay with that."

"I'll go anywhere to be with you, Annie. I would do anything for you. I love you." 

"I love you too." 

 


	79. Surprise

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon in Reading, Pennsylvania. The sun was shining bright and warm and there was a gentle, cool breeze. It was the perfect day to go to the park or stroll through the town for some light shopping, or in Margot's case, watch as Joe and Irv played each other over and over again in chess. 

Margot had thought nothing of it when she finally introduced Joe to his older neighbour, Irv, but never in a hundred years had she expected them to get along so well. And never in a hundred years had she thought Joe could even play chess, let alone be so good at it. The things you don't learn about someone in a war zone were much vaster than Margot had ever imagined.

So now, Margot spent a lot of time watching the two men play chess again each other, the skillset so matched that it was hard to tell who was going to win until the very end of the game. Margot had also pretty much lost her chess teacher altogether in the process, but she was okay with it. 

Leaning back in her chair on Irv's backyard deck, Margot let the rays of sun hit her face and closed her eyes. She had no idea why, but lately, she had been feeling more and more tired throughout the day, which was odd because she was sleeping just fine. In fact, with Joe beside her at night, she was sleeping better than she had in years.

After another round, Margot was ready to head back to the house and relax on the couch, but the guys were still more than entertained with their game and beers. "Are you two done yet?" she chuckled. "I'm exhausted."

"It is three in the afternoon." Irv checked his watch. "What on Earth do you have to be exhausted about other than watching me kick your boyfriend's butt in chess?"

"Hey, the score is even." Joe reminded him before turning to Margot. "Did you sleep okay last night?"

Margot nodded. "Yeah, I slept fine. I don't know why I'm so tired."

"Enough with the lovey shit." Irv waved his hand before pointing down to the board in front of him. "Back to the game."

Margot smirked. "Okay, you two enjoy then, but I'm going to lie down. Have fun."

"I'll be home after this game," Joe said.

"Like hell, you will." Irv protested. "It's best out of five."

Joe laughed. "Okay, guess I'll be home after best out of five."

"Okay." Margot gave a wave to the guys before heading back to the home next door where she and Joe currently lived together. Their situation was definitely an odd one, but due to their circumstances, they made it work. 

Neither one of them was positive on what label to put on it, but they didn't correct Irv when he called them boyfriend and girlfriend, even though at some moments it felt like so much more than that. They slept together in the same bed at night, and on more than one occasion they had  _slept_  together, but still, the status was unknown. 

Margot tried not to think about it too much though. At that time in her life, she was more than happy just going with the flow and seeing where life with Joe took her. 

Walking through the doorway of the small but cozy home, Margot made her way to the bedroom, crawled into bed, and fell asleep mere seconds after her head hit the pillow. 

Margot wasn't sure how long she had been sleeping, exactly, but when she opened her eyes again, there was a strong arm wrapped around her waist and gentle breathing on the back of her neck. A content smile spread across Margot's face and she rolled over in Joe's arms and tucked her head underneath his chin.

"Did you win?" she asked.

"No." he whispered. "I let Irv win so I could come back home to you. I think he caught on near the end though, but spending time in bed with you sounded much more appealing."

Margot chuckled. "And you didn't have any trouble getting back?"

"Psht." Joe scoffed. "I'm a damn pro with that prosthetic leg now."

"Oh, yes. How dare I question your skills."

"Yes, how dare you, indeed." Joe brought his hand up so he could run his fingers through Margot's hair. "You sure you're feeling okay? You've been really tired lately."

Craning her neck so she could look up at Joe, Margot planted a soft kiss on his lips. "Yes, I'm sure. Maybe it's just all of that war-exhaustion finally catching up with me."

"Maybe." Joe chortled in agreement. "Just as long as you're sure."

"You're cute when you're worried about me."

"I had months of practice being worried about you while I was here and you were still over there. I'm really good at it."

Margot nodded. "I had my fair share of practice too."

With that, the couple fell back asleep for a little while, perfectly happy with just being in each other's arms. 

Over the next couple of weeks, however, Margot's symptoms got more prominent and more frequent. With the never-ending exhaustion came a sudden hunger that consumed her when she wasn't sleeping. These sudden changes most certainly didn't go unnoticed by Joe, or even Irv, but Margot refused to admit there was something wrong, and to her, there wasn't. Margot had been through a literal war, so some extra sleeping and eating were like a papercut in the grand scheme of things. 

But then the hunger turned to an aversion to food and sometimes even the smell of it. Margot would wake up sick and spend most of the morning sick. She played it off as the stomach flu for as long as she could, but after about week three, Joe wasn't buying it anymore. He was beyond worried and just about demanded that Margot see a doctor, and out of excuses, she agreed. 

Margot was still convinced she was fine, maybe just a bit sick, but otherwise fine. And she stuck to that story when she walked into the doctor's office the next Monday morning. Sitting on the examination table, with her legs dangling off the edge, she waited until the only female doctor of the practice could see her. 

"Good morning." the woman walked in, her white lab coat ending just above her knees. "I'm Dr. Hilton. What seems to be the problem today?"

Margot sighed. "Well, I'm not really sure. I've been really tired the past few weeks and throwing up a lot."

"Hmm." Dr. Hilton thought for a moment. "And do you have any other symptoms? Fever, runny nose, cough?"

"No."

"Okay. Do you mind if I do a quick examination?"

Margot shook her head. "Go ahead."

Moving forward, Dr. Hilton took Margot's blood pressure, listened to her breathing, and checked her throat and ears. Then, she felt Margot's abdomen, where she found the large scar on her ribcage. "Oh, that's a nasty scar," she commented. "What's it from?"

"The war," Margot answered. "Bayonet." 

Dr. Hilton clearly had more questions, but none of them were relevant to diagnosing Margot, so she kept them to herself. She did, however, follow up a bit more with Margot's mental health. "And how have you been faring since returning?" she asked. "We've been seeing a lot of returning soldiers who return with PTSD and other problems. There's no shame in-"

"-I'm fine." Margot was beginning to get uncomfortable. "I'm just here to find out why I've been throwing up. That's it."

"Okay." Dr. Hilton respected Margot's request. "When you are sick, is it all day long?" 

"No, mostly in the mornings." 

Dr. Hilton smiled, almost sure she knew what Margot was dealing with. "Let's do a quick blood test."

Following Dr. Hilton to the back of the clinic, Margot had her blood taken and then spent about twenty minutes or so waiting in the office for her results. When Dr. Hilton returned with a slip of paper in her hand, she handed the results back to Margot and flashed her a wide smile. "You are not sick," she told her. "Congratulations." 

Margot's eyebrows knit together in confusion, but when she looked down at the paper and read the results, she felt her heart drop. Everything in the world around her stopped for a few seconds and she just sat there, focused on her breathing and the words in front of her. 

With Margot only half listening, Dr. Hilton explained the options and gave her a few pamphlets of information before sending Margot on her way and encouraging her to return if she had any questions.

The walk back to the house from the doctors was a weird one for Margot. She felt as if she were only half there — almost as if she were watching someone else make this confusing trek through the crowded streets. 

Margot knew that as soon as she walked through the front door, Joe would be asking her all sorts of questions, for no other reason than he was worried about her. So, Margot took a few more laps around the block to clear her mind before finally deciding to brave the onslaught of interrogating inquiries. 

Just as predicted, as soon as Margot opened the door, Joe looked up at her from the newspaper he was reading on the couch and smiled. "Hey, how did it go?"

Hanging up her coat, the slip of paper still tucked away in its pocket, Margot sighed. "It went well."

"That's good!"

"Yeah."

"Did the doctor figure out why you've been so unwell?"

Sitting down beside Joe, Margot swallowed hard. "Yeah." 

Joe waited for Margot to elaborate, but when she didn't, he put the newspaper down and took her hands in his. "Hey, it's okay, you can trust me," he told her. "I didn't turn my back on you when you needed help with your wound after Carentan and I'm not about to do it now. Whatever it is, we can handle it, I promise. I heard a lot of the guys got some wicked viruses during the war so if you-"

"-It's not a virus." Margot said. "I'm not sick."

Joe was confused. "You're not sick? Then why have you been..." the realization his Joe like a brick wall and he stared back at Margot for what felt like forever, his mouth hung open but no words coming out. 

In those few seconds that felt like hours, the two had a whole conversation with each other just with their eyes, but after a while, it was clear that Joe needed to hear Margot actually say it before he fully believed it. 

Margot nodded slowly to confirm his obvious suspicions, a sheepish smile dawning her face. "Surprise. I'm pregnant." 

 


	80. Together

Margot waited with bated breath for Joe to say something. She knew that being pregnant hadn't been on any of their to-do lists and probably wouldn't have been any time soon. They had barely even discussed marriage, let alone children. They had been happy just living in the moment and now they were forced to think about the future. Everything was happening so fast.

Joe was still silent, his mouth wide open, but no noise coming out. Margot's heart was beating hard and quick, nervous energy coursing through her and getting more intense for every second that Joe refused to speak. Margot had thought she knew Joe; knew that he cared about her enough to stand by her side no matter what, but now she wasn't so sure. 

"Joe?" Margot finally decided to break the silence. "Do you maybe want to say something?"

Joe closed his mouth, swallowed hard, and stood up. "I'm sorry." he grabbed his coat and crutches. "I just...I just need a minute." And with that, he walked out the front door and down the sidewalk.

Margot's heart broke and a quiet sob poured from her lips. Right then, at that moment, she wanted her mother and Annie. All she wanted was so not be alone, and even though, in a way, she wouldn't ever be alone for the next few months, she felt the most isolated from everyone in her life than she ever had.

Margot sat right there, in the same spot on the couch, for about twenty minutes, waiting for Joe to come back. He never did. Margot tried not to cry, she really did, but with the onslaught of sudden emotion, she broke down, and not just about her pregnancy. She cried about her mother and her father, she cried about the war, she cried about all the friends she had lost, and she cried about Joe seemingly walking out on her. She cried about the life she was living; the life she felt trapped in. 

When she finally couldn't take being alone anymore, Margot got up and went next door to Irv's house. It was the early evening by then, but the kitchen and living room lights were still on, so she hoped he was still awake.

When Irv opened the door to a sobbing Margot, he didn't ask a single question before ushering her inside, helping her settle on the couch, and heading into the kitchen to fix a warm cup of tea. When he returned a few minutes later with a piping hot mug in his hands, he sat down with the now calmer woman and listened. 

Irv listened to Margot talk and talk until she couldn't talk anymore and had to take a sip of her tea, which by then, was only luke-warm. Then, he gave her the best advice that he could. 

"My dear, while I cannot tell you exactly what your dear Joe is thinking right now, or even where he might have gone, what I can tell you is to just give him a little time. I've made my fair share of mistakes throughout my own life, and I can't even count the number of times my late Judith should have left me in the dust because of them. But she didn't, and do you know why that was?"

Margot grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table and wiped away her tears. "Because she loved you?"

"Because she loved me." Irv nodded. "Love isn't about making or not making mistakes with each other, it is about having faith in the other person to do the right thing when those mistakes do happen, because they always do. No one is perfect. I know I like to joke a lot, but I see the way you and Joe are together. I do a lot of watching, remember? He loves you, that is clear."

"How do you know?"

"Because he looks at you the same way I used to look at my Judith and I loved her more than anything in this world."

Taking another sip of her tea, Margot sighed. "Do you have any children?"

"No." Irv shook his head. "Never got around to it. We were always waiting for the right time, but let me tell you, there is no right time. There never will be. This is your right time, and although it seems hard now, it's a blessing. Embrace it. Enjoy it."

"Thank you." Margot smiled. "What would I do without your endless pools of wisdom?"

"Wisdom is for the thinkers instead of the doers," Irv repeated the same thing he had said to Margot on their first meeting. "What I have to offer is life experience." 

After a little bit more chatting to calm Margot down, the two friends said goodnight to each other and went their separate ways. Margot thanked Irv once more for the tea and conversation before making her way back to the house. 

Joe still hadn't returned, and while that did worry Margot, she didn't freak out about it. Following Irv's advice, she continued to give him more time, and as the hours passed, she reminded herself that she loved Joe and that he loved her. He wouldn't leave her. 

While she waited, Margot crafted a letter to Annie asking her advice. She never really had any intention to ever send it, but she felt the process of writing down her feelings to be therapeutic, and in the end, she could hear Annie's voice in her head, telling her what to do. 

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, the front door finally opened. Sitting up in bed, Margot threw her housecoat and slippers on and shuffled out of the bedroom, ready to finally have the conversation both she and Joe had been dreading. 

As soon as Margot turned on the main living room light, Joe turned around, a handful of flowers in his hand and a look of utter guilt plastered on his face. "I'm so sorry," he spoke first. "I shouldn't have done what I did...I shouldn't have left. I had to clear my head and think about things so I went for a walk and then before I knew it the sun was setting and I realized that I had been a total asshole so I tried to get you some flowers but all of the shops were closed so I ended up going to every single one in town and I don't walk so fast and then...well, I stole these from a flowerbed in the town park." he held up the handful of red tulips that had clumps of dirt still attached to their roots. "I'm so sorry. I thought for sure you would have left my sorry ass by now, but you didn't, you haven't...you're still here. You're still here."

"I'm still here." Margot felt her heart well up. Irv was right; all she needed was a little faith in the man she loved. "And you came back."

"Of course I came back. I love you." Joe dropped the flowers onto the table and made his way to Margot, wrapping her tight in his arms. "I was scared. I didn't think I was ready to be a father, but I forgot the most important thing. I'm not doing this alone, I'm doing it with you, and together we can do anything."

Margot felt so overwhelmed by her emotions that she began to laugh and cry at the same time. It had been a difficult past few months, but now she finally felt like everything was going to be okay. "So you're in?" she asked. "You want to have this baby...with me?"

"I want nothing more than to have this baby with you. It's gonna be a challenge, but together, we can do it." Joe kissed Margot on the top of her head. "Who would have thought we would end up like this, huh?"

Margot smiled wide. "Not me. I thought you were kind of a dick when we first met, to be honest."

"And I thought you were a little entitled." 

"That's fair."

"Hey." Joe pressed his fingers to the underside of Margot's chin and tilted her head up. "Thank you for being so patient with me."

"And thank you for being so patient with me."

"I love you."

Margot pressed her lips to Joe's. "I love you, too." 


	81. Dear Margot

_Dear Margot,_

_We haven't talked in quite a while, and I've been so wrapped up with everything going on that I've completely forgotten to write to you. I hope more than anything that everything is going well with you, wherever you are (hopefully you made your way to Joe)._

_I have so much to tell you and no idea where to start. So many big things are happening and I wish you were here to experience them with me, but I know you have your own life to live and your own big things going on._

_I guess I will start with the biggest piece of news, which is that George Luz and I got married! As soon as it happened I wanted to run to you and tell you everything. It's been weird getting used to not having you by my side through everything. I guess George is my new Margot now. Anyway, it was a really spur of the moment thing and believe it or not, I proposed to him! I wish you could have seen it! It looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head._

_After you left he showed up at my house out of nowhere and everything finally became clear. It was him. It was always him. But you knew that. You always know things way ahead of me; you're smart like that. Always have been, always will be._

_The wedding was small and happened not long after but I felt so bad not having you there! If there had been time to invite you, trust me, I would have because I needed someone to kick me into shape. I was so nervous! But I did it. I got myself down that aisle and I married that damn man!_

_The ceremony was lovely and we had both of our families there, which combined was more than enough people. It was quaint and beautiful and I have so many photos to show you. I've attached my favourite one with this letter. Doesn't George look so different in a suit as opposed to his usual ODs? He looks like a whole new man._

_The next biggest chunk of news is that we moved to Asheville, Tennessee. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do because I knew there was no way I could sit around and be a housewife. Then I remembered the letter Captain Miller sent. Thankfully, George agreed to come out here with me and he managed to find work as well, so now I'm here, training future combat medics at Camp Mirage._

_It's so weird to be back here where everything started. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in that damn mess hall, but at the same time, it also feels like a lifetime ago. So much has changed since then. I don't even feel like the same person._

_If you had asked me like six years ago where I thought I would be now I probably would have said sitting at home with a litter of children, making dinner, married to Steve. Man, am I glad that didn't happen. Not that I'm super opposed to the litter of children aspect, but maybe not quite yet. G_ _eorge wants a big family. Like, enough kids to field a whole baseball team. I love that man, and of course, I want kids with him...maybe just not that many._

_Anyway, you'll have to come visit soon! I know George would love to see you again, and of course, I miss you like crazy. I'll take you to see Camp Mirage as well. It's changed so much and you would be proud of it, I know it. The barracks are full of women just like us, ready to serve and protect their country; wide-eyed and willing. It's beyond inspiring._

_Captain Miller would be thrilled to see you again, too. He has photos of us up on his office wall (he still claims we are his greatest achievements) and he even framed numerous newspaper articles about us. He's like a proud father, it's kind of adorable. Working with him is awesome, too._

_I wish I could show you all of this instead of just telling you. Write back to me as soon as you get this and we can plan to meet up again. The dynamic duo will reunite!_

_I miss you heaps and hope all is well with you. I look forward to hearing all about how you've been!_

_Remember, no matter what life throws at you, it can't possibly be worse than Currahee. Three miles up, three miles down! Hi-ho, silver!_

_Love,_

_Annie Winslow_


	82. Dear Annie

_Dear Annie,_

_You wouldn't believe my excitement when I got your letter, and let me tell you, when I read that you and George were married I nearly yelped. I'm so happy for you that words can't even begin to describe, and of course, I wish I could have been at your big day as well, but there would have never been a doubt in my mind that you could do it without me._

_George does indeed look so different, but you both look lovely, and Joe agrees with me. He made a few jokes about George's fancy suit, but I expected nothing less. You look beyond beautiful; absolutely gorgeous. I'm tearing up just looking at the photo, but of course, that could also have something to do with the hormones._

_Your job sounds amazing as well! I'm so happy you found something you love to do and I couldn't think of a better possible place for you to do it at. Make you sure tell Captain Miller I think it's very sweet that he is so proud of us. He's like the father I wish I had._

_Both of us are looking forward to taking you up on your offer to visit, but it will have to wait a few months or so as I am actually due to have a baby in a few weeks. I'm sure that will shock you to hear, and trust me, it shocked us at first as well. It feels like just last week we were freaking out about being parents and now I'm the size of a watermelon and Joe is building a crib as I write this. Boy, how things change over time._

_I think you and George would make adorable little kids, but take it from me, after just carrying one, I don't think I wanna do this too many more times and I haven't even given birth yet, which I'm sure is the least fun part. Also, no one ever tells you how hard picking baby names are. Joe and I started picking possible names during the first few months and we only just settled on Diane if it's a girl (after my mother) and James if it's a boy (just because Joe likes the name.)_

_I really wish my parents were still around to meet this kid. I think it would have helped my father and I reconnect a little. Man, I really wish I had gotten a chance to see him again after everything. I know my mom would have loved to have a granddaughter, and she would have loved to meet you as well. I think they would have been proud of how I turned out._

_But nevermind that. Look at us, married and having kids! Very different from those wild women running around a battlefield, hey? Weirdly enough, I miss it sometimes. I think it's the pure adrenaline of it all and the feeling of accomplishment. At least we can always say we did it. I don't regret any of it for even a second._

_Well, anyway, Joe and I are living in Reading, Pennsylvania. It's nice here. I think I like it better than North Carolina, but that may be because there are no bad memories associated with it. We have this incredible neighbour, Irv, who is such a character. In a way, he reminds me of Captain Winters. Very wise, but of course, he would say wisdom is for the thinkers instead of the doers._

_Irv has taken it upon himself to try and teach me chess but sadly, I don't think I'll ever be very good at it. Joe and he spend hours a day playing though. It's nice to watch. They get along well; they both have a grumpy, old man demeanour, but don't tell Joe I ever said that. I'll just deny it anyway._

_I can't wait to hear from you again! As soon as the baby is born, I will send a photo. Hopefully, little Diane or little James can meet Aunt Annie soon after. I'm looking forward to seeing you again as well. I miss you tons._

_Three miles up, three miles down! Currahee!_

_I wish you nothing than less than all of the happiness in the world,_

_Margot Kessler_


	83. We Happy Few

**Toccoa, Georgia. 1947. Approximately 2 years after the end of World War II.**

The large ballroom was decorated conservatively, nothing too fancy or flashy. Whoever had been in charge of the decorating had assumed that the Easy Company reunion was more of a casual event with classy dress, and they had assumed right. No one was looking for anything too overwhelming; they had all had enough overwhelming for one lifetime. 

Even just the simple thought of a reunion was a lot for some of the former paratroopers to handle. Seeing everyone again was both exciting and terrifying — it was almost like the unspoken pressure to prove you've done something with your life at a high school reunion. 

In the end, though, everyone knew they would regret it if they didn't show up. It was like the true final chapter to a nearly six-year-long story. It was the bittersweet ending everyone needed, and a bittersweet ending they got.

Standing in the parking lot, just outside of the large building before her, Margot stared at the doors. They were just doors, but somehow they felt like so much more; almost like a portal to the past. Margot knew that as soon as she stepped through the doorway she would be greeted with so many faces; faces she hadn't seen in so long. Faces that represented the best and worst years of her life. 

Feeling a hand on her back, Margot turned to look at Joe, who was smiling down at her. He was in no rush to enter the building either. He felt the same way Margot did; so much so he didn't know how anyone had entered the building before him. He wondered if everyone had stood outside as long as they were before going in.

"Whenever you're ready," Joe said. "Take as long as you need."

"Just a few more seconds." Margot tried to internally hype herself up. "I just need a few more seconds."

Side by side, the couple stood in silence, the street lights in the parking lot dimly illuminating their silhouettes. Before that moment, neither of them had thought of not going to the reunion for even a second, but now here they were, more scared than they had ever been in the past two years. 

Hearing the soft sound of wheels on the cement, Margot turned around just in time to watch a taxi slow to a stop a few meters away. Margot's heart jumped into her throat. She couldn't tell who was about to step out of the back of the cab and she wasn't sure she was ready to face whoever it was. She was sure she needed more time before seeing Bill or Babe or even Winters. 

When the back doors finally opened, Margot held her breath without even thinking, but when she saw that familiar head of blonde hair and warm brown eyes, she smiled and inhaled sharply, the crisp night air filling her lungs. 

"Annie." Margot ran over and enveloped her friend in a tight hug. "I've missed you so much."

It took Annie a few seconds to process what was happening, but soon enough she warmed to the hug and wrapped her arms around Margot, squeezing tight as well. "Margot. It's you."

"It's me."

The two friends, despite their many letters back and forth and attempts to meet up, hadn't actually seen each other in person since their heartfelt goodbye on Annie's porch in 1945. Neither one of them ever expected their separate lives to get so busy, but even though they weren't able to visit each other, they remained in contact. 

While the two women held each other, George and Joe gave each other a hug as well, not having seen each other for even longer; not since everyone had said goodbye after disembarking from the boat in New York after the war. 

While the real reunion was taking place about a hundred meters away, the four friends were having their own little reunion in the parking lot. 

Finally pulling away from the hug, Margot fixed the parts of Annie's dress that she had wrinkled with her hug and smiled. "My goodness, look at you. You look beautiful."

"So do you." Annie looked up at the night sky to stop herself from tearing up. "I told myself I wasn't going to cry. You're not making this easy." 

"I'm sorry." Margot dried her own eyes before turning to George and pulling him in for a hug. "I'm so happy for you guys," she whispered in his ear while Annie and Joe caught up as well. "I always knew you two were meant for each other."

"Thanks." George gave Margot a hearty pat on the back. "We're happy for you guys as well. How's the little one doing?" 

Margot immediately turned to Joe who, without even having to be asked, started pulling the most recent photo of their daughter Diane out of his wallet. "She'll be one in three weeks." he handed the photo to Annie and George. "She's got Margot's stunning green eyes. Isn't she just the cutest?"

"That's one really cute kid you've got there. Congratulations, buddy." George smiled at the pride on Joe's face as he handed the photo back, resting a hand on Joe's upper arm briefly as he congratulated him. 

"She's beyond adorable." Annie agreed as she turned to George. "Think ours will be that cute?"

George smiled and placed his palm onto Annie's stomach. "Without a doubt."

Margot's eyes darted back and forth between the couple. "Wait. Are you-? What?"

"Yeah." Annie nodded, a sheepish grin on her face. "It's still really early, but I wanted to wait to tell you in person."

"Oh, my god!" Margot squealed. "Congratulations!"

Joe shook George's hand. "You'll love it. There's nothing like being a father." 

"Thanks. We're really excited about it." George said. 

Then, as the pleasantries and catching up came to an end, the four turned back to the building, the doors still as intimidating as they had been before. Turning to Annie, Margot held out her hand. "Together." she encouraged. "Just like walking into those barracks for the first time."

"Together." Annie took Margot's hand and side by side they led the way into the building, the men following closely behind, chatting about something or another. 

Following the signs through the halls, the small group finally found their way to the ballroom. As soon as they walked through the open doors, a room full of heads turned to face them. It looked as though everyone else had gotten there before them.

"George Luz!" the familiar but aged face of Frank Perconte emerged from the crowd. "Buddy!"

"Perconte!" George pulled his old friend in for a quick hug before ushering Annie over to his side. "I would introduce you to my wife, but I'm pretty sure you've already met."

Annie laughed. "Good to see you, Frank."

"No way!" Frank gasped. "I thought for sure after that whole goodbye at the train station the bets were completely off. You two are married? Wow, this is-" he cut himself off by turning back to the crowd of other men, "-hey, Malark! You owe me ten bucks!"

Walking over with a drink in his hand, Donald Malarkey scoffed. "What the hell do I owe you ten bucks for?"

Frank gestured to George and Annie. "I always had faith in you, buddy." he winked at George slyly before holding his hand out to Malarkey. "Pay up."

"What? No way! That bet was over the minute we all went our separate ways." Malarkey refused. "She picked neither of them at the train station, remember? That's the one that counts. What happens post-war doesn't matter." 

"Doesn't matter?!" Frank continued to persuade Malarkey as the two walked off to settle their debate, leaving George and Annie alone, chuckling to themselves. 

"Good to see you, too, Malark!" Annie called after them.

Turning around, Malarkey rushed back over and side-hugged Annie quickly. "You look lovely." he kissed her cheek before returning to Frank's side to argue his position.

A few feet away, Margot was standing next to Joe, greeting the men one by one as they approached her. The first thing almost everyone said was that they weren't surprised in the least to see the two together, which then prompted Joe to pull the baby photo out, which prompted a slew of baby-related conversations with the men who had families of their own. 

This was also when Margot and Joe were introduced to everyone's significant others. John Martin had brought his wife, Patty, and Harry Welsh had brought Kitty — two women that the troops had heard a lot about during the war. Margot even got the chance to catch up with Frances, Bill's wife, while Joe and Bill talked each other's ears off. 

Turns out the reunion was, in fact, overwhelming, but in a good way. Every direction Margot turned in there was another old friend waiting to catch up with her. In no time at all Margot was questioning why she had ever been so scared, because without a doubt, right then, she was the happiest she had been in a while. 

Just when Margot thought she had greeted everyone, she spotted someone standing at the back of the crowd, patiently waiting for his turn to talk to the raven-haired woman. He looked just like he had when Margot had seen him in Philadelphia. Somehow, he hadn't aged a day since she first met him in that field camp when he and the rest of the replacements had first joined the war. He was still her young, wide-eyed, redheaded partner.

"Edward Heffron." Margot wrapped her arms around his neck and instantly had a flashback to all the times they had held each other through the hardest times. "You look well." 

"I am well," he told her, a warm, happy smile on his face. "Look at you. Married, kids. You've grown up."

"I could say the same to you." Margot looked past Babe at the beautiful woman standing just behind him. "Well, go on. Introduce me."

Stepping to the side, Babe made room for the woman to step forward. "Margot, this is my wife, Dolores. Dolores, this is Margot."

"Margot, of course." Dolores smiled and shook Margot's hand. "I've heard so much about you, and not just from the articles and reports. You and Antonia are inspirations to women all over the country, you know that?"

Margot could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. "Well, thank you, but I'm sure Annie will agree with me when I say, we were just doing our part. Of course, inspiring more female soldiers is a welcomed bonus."

"Oh, nonsense." Dolores laughed. "You know, you and your husband have to come out to Philadelphia to visit soon. We can all get together, Babe and I, you and Joe, even Bill and Frances. Oh, it'll be wonderful!"

Margot couldn't help but nod along. "Oh, yes, that sounds wonderful. We'll probably have to bring Diane along though. She's still quite young. Even leaving her for this trip was a little nerve-wracking."

"Of course!" Dolores dug around in her purse before pulling out a photo of a girl about the same age as Daine. "I'm sure she and Patricia would get along just great!"

Margot placed a hand over her chest and looked up at Babe. "You have a daughter?"

Babe nodded proudly. "She's the light of my life."

"Oh, I'm so happy for you. She's beautiful."

"Thank you."

As Joe made his way back over to Margot and joined the conversation with Babe, Annie was on the other side of the room, deep in conversation with Eugene Roe and Ralph Spina. The trio of former medics were telling each other about what they were doing for work currently, both Spina and Roe overjoyed that Annie was training future combat medics; they both agreed that there was no job better suited for her in the whole world.

Annie was just about to dive into explaining the recent advances in combat medicine when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. Turning around, Annie was expecting to find Margot or George standing there, but it was neither of them. In fact, the face that greeted her came as a bit of a surprise; a good surprise.

"Joe." Annie almost couldn't believe he was standing there in front of her. "Excuse me." she stepped away from Roe and Spina before turning her attention back to the man before her. "Hi." she breathed.

"It's good to see you again." Joe held his hand out for Annie to take, and without thinking, she did. Slowly, Joe Liebgott led Annie out of the room and into the hall where it was quieter. Annie's heart was drumming against her ribcage and she was almost worried that Joe could hear it. 

When the two finally came to a stop, neither one was sure what to say, or even who should speak first. A part of Annie began to worry if George had seen her sneaking off with Joe, and if he had, what was he thinking?

"I just wanted to talk to you alone." he finally spoke up. "Without all of the eyes and the pressure, you know." 

"Yeah." Annie wasn't sure what Joe's intentions were. "Joe, listen, I-"

"No, no, it's okay." Joe stopped her before she said something foolish. "Everything I said in my letter, I meant. You did get my letter, right?"

Annie nodded. "Yes."

"Good." he smiled. "Everything I said in there, I meant. It did take me a little while to get over you, but I did. I moved on, I'm happy now, and when I look back at our time spent together — however you want to define it — I look back on it with nothing but fondness. I just wanted you to know that there are no ulterior motives here. I'm happy. You're happy. And it's so good to see you again. You look great."

Annie's nerves immediately dissipated. "It's good to see you again, too. I've missed you. So much."

"I've missed you too." Joe agreed. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we should probably get back in there before anyone starts to get the wrong idea." he headed for the door again, but stopped short and pulled a five-dollar bill out of his pocket. "Oh, before I forget. Here." he handed the money over. "This is my portion of the bet. Give it to George for me, will you? Tell him, 'it looks like the best man won.'"

"Okay." Annie took the money, a little confused and dumbfounded. 

"We'll catch up more later." And with that, Joe pressed a soft peck to the back of Annie's hand before disappearing back into the room and the crowd of people. 

Tucking the bill away, Annie chuckled to herself. However she had imagined her first meeting with Joe after two years being, that was most definitely not it. Just as Annie was about to follow Joe back into the ballroom, she heard a couple of pairs of footsteps coming down the hall and waited to see who was arriving; she had sworn everyone was there. Of course, when the duo rounded the corner, Annie was surprised she had ever forgotten them.

Dressed just as nicely as every other man — in well-fitting suits and shined shoes — Richard Winters and Lewis Nixon looked just as commanding as they ever had in their uniforms. 

"Well, well." Nixon grinned when he spotted Annie. "You can't possibly be the same medic I remember. Where are the dirt smudges? What about the bloodstains?"

Annie rolled her eyes. "Believe it or not, I have showered quite a few times since we've last seen each other." she embraced both of the men. "Not like you to be late." she looked to Winters and then Nixon again. "Can't exactly say the same for you."

The men laughed. "I thought I'd let everyone get settled before I showed up," Winters explained. "No matter how much time has passed, they'll still always see me as their captain."

"Oh, yes, right." Annie straightened up and saluted. "Sir."

"At ease, soldier." Winters narrowed his eyes at the cheeky woman. "Well, let's get this thing over with, shall we?"

"Yes, we shall." Annie motioned for the men to go in front of her. "Don't worry. There's an open bar."

Nixon clapped his hands together. "I knew coming was a good idea."

As soon as the trio reentered the room, Nixon headed straight for the bar while the crowd slowly fell silent, all eyes on Winters, their fearless leader; the best man any of them had ever had the pleasure of knowing. George Luz was the first one to salute the redheaded captain, and then, one by one, everyone else followed suit. Soon, every former soldier in that room had their right hand to their forehead, and all at once, they lowered them. Winters was right: he would always be their captain.

"At ease, men." he stood tall in front of the large gathering. "It's good to see you all again. You all look well." he paused for a moment. "Well, you've all heard me make far too many long-winded speeches in the past, so I'll keep this brief. This is a night of good food, good drinks, and good company. Enjoy yourselves. You've more than earned it."

A small round of applause followed Winters' speech and then following his advice, the men and women of Easy Company went back to drinking and chatting with the promise of good food to come soon.

Not long after, Robert Sink and Ronald Speirs even showed up, which surprised a lot of the reunion attendees. While Sink made a short but sweet speech as well about how much of an American inspiration Easy Company was and how each and every one of them should be more than proud of their service to their country, Speirs slinked off with Nixon to drink and avoid as much conversation as possible. 

In the hour left before dinner, Margot and Annie continued to make their way around the room, striking up conversations with as many different people as they could, making sure to meet everyone's wife at least once and gush over the pictures of their children. It was heartwarming just how many of them had managed to return to a normal life after the war; a war that had seemingly stripped them down to the very core of existence, leaving nothing left but a shell of a person.

Passing by Annie as she laughed along to a joke with Lynn Compton and Carwood Lipton, Margot made her way out of the room so she could locate the bathroom before dinner began. On her way out, she flashed a small smile to Albert Blithe in passing, noting how much better he looked as opposed to the last time she had seen him. As she walked through the hall and followed the signage for the washrooms, she spotted a man leaning against the wall, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. 

At first, Margot didn't recognize the man, but as she got closer and the  _click_ of her heels alerted him to her presence, he looked up, revealing his face. It was Herbert Sobel. 

Margot stopped in her tracks, every rude thing he had ever said to her running through her head. She had half a mind to take the opportunity to chew him out and relish in the fact that he couldn't make her march twelve miles or revoke her weekend pass as punishment. However, the look of pure embarrassment on his face changed her mind. 

At that moment, as he stared back at her, she could tell he regretted it all; everything he had ever said or done to the men and women of Easy Company. But most of all, he regretted ever losing Easy Company. He most certainly wasn't the leader Easy needed or deserved — no, that was Winters — but he was without a doubt the captain that made them who they were; the toughest company in the whole damn Army. 

"Are you debating going inside or not?" Margot asked, taking a few steps closer.

Nervously, Sobel removed his left hand from his pocket peered down at his watch. "Yes...or, no. I-I shouldn't have come. No one wants me here."

"I'm sure that's not true," Margot assured him, shocked with herself that she was being kind to this man. "You wouldn't have gotten an invitation if no one wanted you here."

"You think?"

"Yeah," Margot answered. "Look, it's up to you whether you want to go in there, but if you are, I'd go now before all the seats are taken at the table." she could tell he still wasn't confident enough. "I know it might not seem like it, but I can promise you that no one in there will turn you away. The lot of us might not have had the smoothest first meeting, but we all know that we owe a lot of our success to you — and maybe even despite you a little. Under your command, we were the first and finest company in the whole regiment. You said it yourself." 

Sobel cracked a small smile, which was probably the first smile of his that Margot had ever seen. "Thank you, Kessler."

"Anytime," she said. "Now, if you'll excuse me." 

As Margot headed for the bathroom, Sobel gathered every ounce of confidence he had and made his way into the room, and just like Margot had predicted, he wasn't turned away at all. Bill was the first person to shake his hand, and from there, the rest of the men urged him to join them.

About twenty minutes later, everyone was seated at the many tables, ready to dig into the delicious food in front of themselves and neutralize the copious amounts of alcohol they had consumed. Margot and Annie found themselves at a table with Bull Randleman, Pat Christenson, Darrell Powers, and Floyd Talbert. 

While the remaining plates were being served, Annie had turned to the table next to theirs and started making bets with Roy Cobb and Skinny Sisk over who was going to be the drunkest by the end of the night. In the meantime, Margot was catching up with Smokey, the two of them retelling stories from their training days together and chuckling like there was no tomorrow. 

Seconds later, a loud  _clinking_ sound started echoing through the room and a hush fell over the former company. Standing up, Malarkey continued to bang his spoon against his glass. "Speech." he turned to look at Winters, who was sitting at a table with Nixon, Speirs, Sobel, Lipton, and Sink. Soon enough, everyone was chanting 'speech' over and over again until Winters finally gave in and rose to his feet. 

A slightly drunken cheer erupted from the men before Winters quieted them all down again. Swallowing hard, Winters exhaled before beginning to speak. "Men — _and women_  — we've shared countless meals together, but this is a very special one. Not only because we aren't all hunched over a single burner waiting for Malarkey to throw together a concoction of truly atrocious taste, and not only because we will actually be able to identify what we are eating, but because we are together. We made it and here we are.

"As many of you know, I'm not one for speeches, so instead I will take this time to read out a letter that Charles Grant has written. Unable to attend tonight due to the ongoing healing process of the gunshot wound he sustained in Austria, he sent me this to read to you all in his absence. 

"'Hello everyone. Although I am deeply saddened that I am unable to attend the reunion, I hope this letter can make up for my not being there. As many of you know, these few years after the war have been tough — in different ways for everyone, I'm sure. After being wounded in Austria, I was devastated I did not get to experience the end of the war with all of you. I was so close, I almost made it. Despite this, however, I feel like I spent enough time with each and every one of you to know exactly how you're doing, and even how you're celebrating now. If I were to walk into that room right now I would expect nothing less than to see Perconte brushing his teeth, Margot backtalking someone, and Winters standing in front of you all, reading this letter and hating every second of it." the room filled with laughter. "With this in mind, I will try to wrap this up swiftly. The war was tough and life after the war is in some ways even tougher, but I know that each and every one of you has the strength to push through and live the life you fought so bravely for. It was an honour to serve with each and every one of you and I hope that sometime in the future our paths will cross once again, just hopefully not in a foxhole. I wish you all the best. Chuck Grant.'"

Another round of applause swept over the room, and with that, Winters ended his speech and encouraged everyone to dig into their food while it was still hot. 

Dinner was beyond delicious; definitely better than any meal they had all shared before, just as Winters had said. With full stomachs and flowing liquor, the good times continued well into the night. At some point after the main course was finished, right before dessert was served, a drunken Popeye Wynn had stood up to read aloud a piece David Webster had written about his time in Easy Company, all while David sat with his head in his hands, clearly embarrassed and wishing he were drunker than he was. 

After dessert Antonio Garcia broke out into 'Blood on the Risers', subsequently leading the room through various other songs afterward. To say the Easy Company troopers were drunk was a gross understatement. It was clear that the gang getting back together again was a sure-fire recipe for drunken disaster, and in many ways, it was reminiscent of the many evenings they had spent together in bars in the past, downing pints, playing darts, and just generally having a good time.

As the hours passed and the drinking began to slow, the overall rowdiness of the gathering had died down and the room was divided into many smaller conversations with men and women moving from table to table. 

It was clear the evening was coming to an end, so after downing a glass of water to wake herself up a little, Margot stood up and called for everyone's attention before people started to break off and leave. She had something to say and she wanted everyone to hear it. 

"Tonight has been wonderful." she began, earning nods from quite a few heads. "This reunion was even better than I could have ever imagined. Seeing you all again brings back so many memories; good and bad, of course, but memories none-the-less. And although I hate to bring down the mood when everyone is having such a great time, I would love it if you would all join me in raising a glass to the friends who I'm sure wish they could be here with us tonight." Margot lifted her wine glass into the air and waiting for everyone else to follow suit. "This toast is to the brave men, extraordinary soldiers, and friends we lost along the way. To Warren Muck, Alex Penkala, Donald Hoobler, William Dukeman, John Julian, James Miller, Eugene Jackson, Thomas Meehan, John Janovec, and every other American soldier who lost their lives fighting for this country. Without them, we would not be here today. Without them, Easy Company would not have been the company it was. May they rest in peace with honour and dignity. To them!"

"To them!" the room repeated, thrusting their glasses high before taking a swig of whatever liquid was sloshing around in cups. 

After Margot's toast, Annie stood too, feeling in the moment that she had to say something as well. "And on that note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you here tonight. When I look around this room, my heart is full. I have so much love for you all; you are my family and you always will be. You believed in me-" she turned to look at Margot, "-you believed in  _us_  when no one else did, and although it took some convincing, you welcomed us as one of your own. Together we have been through hardships that most people can't even begin to imagine. Together we have faced death and tackled what some thought impossible. We jumped out of airplanes, we marched across enemy lines, we froze our asses off in foxholes, we got shot at, and yet, here we are. Together we survived, and I know that I personally wouldn't be here without you all. I owe you my life. From this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother." 

**The End**


	84. 2nd Book

Wow, what a relief it is to have finally been able to bring Margot and Annie's stories to a swift and beautiful end. I want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to read my story, love my characters, and leave your feedback.

Once this story finished I was sure I was done, but then I started having ideas for a second book and I just haven't been able to get it out of my head. Am I really going to do this again?

Yes. The answer is yes.

This show has so much to offer a fanfiction writer and I am going to be jumping back into the story, this time through a fresh pair of eyes. 

House of Gold tells the story of Benjamin and Elizabeth Whittaker, twins who have found a career in the Army even before the beginning of World War II, and how they cope with the journey that finds them in the middle of Europe alongside Easy Company. 

If you would like to join me for yet another story, here is the link: www.wattpad.com/story/211974387-house-of-gold-band-of-brothers?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=link_copy

I look forward to seeing you there! And once again, I thank you for coming this far with me. Margot and Annie have had their time in the light; now it's time for some new faces! 


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